The Only Way to Get Rid of All Troubles for All Times!

Navisto duscharithannashanto nasamahitah
Nashantmanaso vaapi pragyonenemaapnuyiat

‘He who has not turned away from bad conduct, whose senses are not subdued, whose mind is not concentrated, whose mind is not pacified, can never obtain this Atman by knowledge.’
-Kathopanishad: 1.2.24
As long as one doesn’t attain self-knowledge, and doesn’t repose in the supreme Brahman, one cannot escape miseries migrating through countless births.

‘He who does not have knowledge of Brahman is doomed, and is never free from sufferings.’

Mere scholastic knowledge of Brahman is not enough. Our intellect while gradually experiencing Brahman, the supreme self, should get established therein. It is not a big thing to have intellectual knowledge of the supreme self; what is significant, is the intellect becoming steady in it. It is easy to acquire knowledge, but sensual cravings, the sense of reality in the world, and the restless mind don’t allow it to become stable.

When we refrain from bad conduct we are righteous in conduct. Righteousness yields religious merit, and religious merit in turn takes us to satsanga and brings us into contact with the saints. It also makes one interested in God. If one is not inclined towards satsanga, it implies the mind has evil tendencies, impurities and sin. There are all kinds of impurities in our minds – desire for sense-enjoyments, egotism, desire for evil doings and the feeling of I-ness and mine-ness.

‘Vile men are ready with excuses when it comes to doing good things but they are very keen to fulfill desires and cannot desist from evil deeds.

Navisto duscharitaath…. One who does not refrain from evil deeds and whose mind is not collected, cannot attain self-bliss. A drowning man drinking the saline water of the sea cannot imagine the joy one gets from watching the waves from the seashore. Similarly, one mired in sense-enjoyments is quite unaware of the joy one experiences by standing aloof and witnessing the sense-enjoyments without getting involved therein and thus transcending them.

What is bad conduct? A man earns some money through deceitful and dishonest means with the expectation of deriving pleasure from his ill-gotten wealth. He goes to Kashmir and spends thousands of rupees. This is bad conduct. It cannot be considered good conduct. Another man earns some money through fair means. He is honest and straightforward and does not misappropriate. But if he fails to exercise self-restraint, he will not get inner joy. Yet another man earns money through fair means but has money rather than self-realization as his goal in life. He too remains deprived of self-bliss. Another man is performing sacrifices and offering oblations to God, but what is his motive behind it? Does he aim at self-realization or is he doing it for securing a place in the heavens? If he has any desire other than self-realization, it means he has not attained equanimity of mind; he has not become introspective. It means he is not on the path of self-knowledge.

Your place is determined by your goal. What you are doing is not that important. The important thing is for whom you are doing it, and what your intention is behind it. You are at the shop. The important thing here is about who you are thinking of. Are you thinking about your wife, the customers, or the Lord? Do you behold the Lord in the form of the customer, or are you thinking about the money in his pocket? Your motive determines whether your action is good or evil. If your goal is the supreme self and you want to realize God, then you are worthy of reverence. Even the place you walk on is worthy of reverence. If your goal is money and sense-gratification, you will have the same fate as most people have – “I am in a hurry; I have to go to the office; I have to do my duty….” Getting up in the morning, brushing the teeth, sipping tea, going to work, taking breakfast, lunch dinner, sex… the same routine day after day….

There is nothing wrong in going to work or in doing things hurriedly. But what is your motive or objective? Why are you in the job and why are you earning money? Is it for more and more sense-enjoyments, or is it for keeping the body healthy? And why do you want to keep the body healthy? Is it for long life or for self-realization? If you don’t give any thought to this matter, your spiritual and devotional practices may turn out to be no better than shop-keeping with discrimination, your shop-keeping will be no less than devotional service to the Lord.

The desire to attain anything other than supreme self is bad conduct. You can avail nothing then by taking a dip in the holy Ganges, living at Badrinath Dham or Kedarnath Dham. You may eat the choicest of dishes, wear the most exquisite clothes, drinks the drinks of your choice, dance day and night, get the whole kingdom of the country or even the whole universe, yet still to no avail.

Even if it were possible to count the particles of dust on the earth, you cannot count how many Indras and Manus have come and gone. Fourteen Manus are changed in one day of Lord Brahma and he lives for a hundred years. There have been crores of Brahmas. How much sense-enjoyment can you have in this small life of yours? What can you really achieve? What is the worth of relationships created in this short life?

Therefore cut asunder all sense-enjoyments, achievements and relationships, with the scissors of discrimination and set your heart on the Lord.