Discrimination

In today’s world, the word discrimination has negative connotations of prejudice and injustice. But the origin of the word is from the Latin discriminat, which means to be able to distinguish between two points of view.

From a young age, we teach our children the fundamental qualities of being a good human being – to love, to share, to be compassionate. We teach them to understand the difference between right and wrong, good and evil.

In much the same way, the saints explain to us a philosophy that helps condition our actions in this world. They tell us that the path back to God requires us to be good not just in word, but in thought and deed. As Christ said on the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”

By giving us the principles by which to live our life – being vegetarian, abstaining from alcohol and mind-intoxicating substances, leading a moral life – the saints are in fact giving us the ability to discriminate between what is good and bad for our spiritual life so that we too might one day have a pure heart.

The ability to identify what is good for our soul allows us to see the bigger picture and comprehend the significance of our actions. It enables us to stay on the path our Master has outlined for us.

Maharaj Charan Singh explains the process to us clearly:

The very realization that we are committing a sin and are the victims of this weakness, that very realization is a great step toward getting rid of that weakness. If we don’t realize we are committing sins, we will never be able to get rid of those sins at all. But when you know you’re committing a sin and try to help yourself, the Lord’s grace will also be there to help you.
_{Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. II}

Before coming to the path, many of us led lives which had a different compass and direction. We did not necessarily put others’ feelings ahead of ours; we did not worry if we hurt others; we were perhaps comfortable in our semi-permanent state of benign agitation.

And so, in the beginning, we may feel that we are in fact regressing on the path. The realization of how much more we need to do to achieve the ideal creeps up on us. But we must not become despondent and give in to over-analysis. We are simply becoming more aware. Our ability to discriminate and reflect on our actions is increasing. Maharaj Charan Singh once explained:

If this room is filled with darkness, you do not know how much that darkness covers up; but if a little ray of light comes in, you know instantly that this whole room is filled with small particles. Similarly, when we do not know about or are not on the path, we are not aware of our bad points. Rather, we take pride in our habits. But when we are on the path, that ray of light comes within us. Then we analyze ourselves and find that we have many very bad habits. In fact, the bad habits were there before, but now we are in a position to analyze them, to realize them. So we feel a little guilty about them.
_{Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. II}

As the rays of light continue to shine on our actions, we begin to mould our lives in accordance to the Master’s teachings. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the balance of the scales in our lives starts to shift towards the good and away from the bad. The change is gradual, but over time we realize that we are more balanced, and we approach the vicissitudes of life with a new-found equanimity.

Why does this happen? The saints explain to us that there is a logical conclusion to everything we do in life. Once we are able to discriminate what is good for us as opposed to what is bad, we are better able to distinguish between the permanent and the illusory. We finally understand what the saints have been telling us for aeons – that the pleasures of this world are fleeting, and our attachments to our family, our wealth, our beauty are only temporary. In contrast, what remains real is the Master – his love for us and his teachings. With our ability to discriminate, we start to follow our Master’s one and only command – to attend regularly and faithfully to our meditation.

Over time, through our Master’s love and grace, we are propelled towards the quiet and peaceful solitude of our meditation. Hazur Maharaj Ji used to say, “From meditation, love will come, submission will come, humility will come. Everything will come.” This becomes possible when we take those first tentative steps on the path of discrimination – the path of being able to distinguish between right and wrong.