Thus Spake the Divine - How to Become Virtuous?

Thus Spake the Divine

How to Become Virtuous?

If we want to be ethical and virtuous in our character, then, we have to necessarily adhere to the Codes of Dharma, as ordained by our Shastras. These codes talk about various behaviours and practices that one should adopt and follow to lead a flawless way of life.

All of us want a mind filled with virtues and virtues alone. But it is not really possible to have a purely, flawless and immaculate mind without any evil thoughts. The mind is like a mischievous child. The child keeps on doing some mischief or the other throughout the day. But if the same child is sent to school, it is fixed to a routine schedule of going to school in the morning, coming back from school in the evening, doing homework in the night and so on. By engaging in these routine activities, the child’s mischievousness vanishes. But on a holiday, the mischief surfaces again.

Similarly, it is important that we keep a fixed schedule for our daily routines and practices and adhere to them in a systematic way. This should not leave any free time to indulge in un-virtuous or evil acts. Our Shastras do have certain sets of rules for this purpose.

One, to possess virtuous characteristics, all our evil and corrupt thoughts must be banished. Towards this goal, our Shastras have directed us to do our karmas viz. daily rituals, poojas, hosting the guests, perform Vaishwadeva ceremony (Krishna in Gita says that food, if cooked and eaten only for one’s own self and family, results in grave sin for the eater. So cooked food should be offered to the world via the Vaishwadeva ceremony. This also includes food offered to all insects which are hurt knowingly or unknowingly in the process of cooking) etc., as part of our everyday routine. If we continue to perform all these karmas uninterruptedly, we will hardly have any free time to think of any wicked deeds, leave alone commit them. An important point to remember is not having any ego while doing these karmas. We have to perform every task with gratitude within our heart that God has graciously allowed us to do that task. At the same time, we must dedicate that task to Him.

We often look at our image in the mirror. If the mirror is dusty, the image is not clear. If we clean the mirror, the image will be clear. But that is not enough. If the mirror oscillates, then even though it is clean, the image will be distorted. So, the mirror should be straight and upright to provide a clear image of our self. Our mind is like a mirror. If there are no wicked thoughts, the mind’s mirror will be clean and clear. If we focus our mind only on one particular thing, then the mind will stand erect without oscillation. At such a time, the image in the mind mirror will be that of Paramatma, the eternal truth.

If we want to become consciously aware of God Almighty, the Creator of this Universe, the epitome of compassion and serenity, who is providing all our requirements of food, clothing and other comforts of life, then, we have to keep our mind pure and upright without letting it oscillate.

Assume that a copper pot has remained drowned in a well for the past 10 years. Imagine the amount of stain it would have accumulated over the years. Think of the magnitude of effort that will be required to make it clean and glittering. It will glitter only to the extent of the effort that we put in cleaning it. More the effort, cleaner will be the vessel. Similarly, we have accumulated quite a lot of impurities and dirt within our mind all these years. To remove all the dirt and purify our mind, we will have to perform numerous good and virtuous acts and other karmas as prescribed by our Shastras. Only that will clean up our mind and instil virtuous characteristics in us.

It is great that we have cleaned the copper vessel today, thereby removing its stains and making it sparkle. If we don’t clean it tomorrow, what will happen? It will again start accumulating stains. Likewise, we should persistently keep cleansing our mind by continuously following the routines of our daily karmas. At some point, the very mind will completely disappear and only the blissful soul will remain. When the mind does not exist, where is the need to purify the mind? Therefore, till we reach that stage, we must keep performing our karmas daily, so that we can continuously nourish our virtuous qualities.

This article is a snippet from the Book Thus Spake the Divine, is available online at www.giri.in and across Giri Trading Agency Private Limited, A chain of Speciality Stores dealing in all kinds of products needed in Indian Culture and Tradition.

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