Conscience

This is always understood to be the inner voice of God. Mahatma Gandhiji said he was guided by his inner voice. It is also mistaken for one's soul, which it is not. Conscience is ethical and not spiritual. Conscience is best described as the personality of one's ethical consciousness. The Mother calls conscience the adversary to yoga as it will ask you not to abandon the family. The Gita advises NOT to honour any Dharma but to surrender. So, the Gita too wants the yogi to overlook one's Conscience.

  • Opinion, Attitude,Motive, Preferences, Conscience, Consciousness are likely to be confused.
  • Opinion is personal, One's personal response to a person or event. By definition it is limited. Mostly it is of the mind.
  • Attitude is the direction of the vital energy directed by the opinion of the mind.
  • Motive is more deeply seated than opinion and attitude.

Opinion is of the mind. Attitude is of the vital. Motive is of the being.

  • Preference is intensely personal. It can be a mental or emotional preference.
  • Not all people are developed enough to have a conscience. Mentally developed persons acquire moral notions based on ethical principles. Ethics is of the mind. While morality can have a social dimension, ethics tend to be personal. Those who have developed ethical urges refer their actions to them. Over the years one's ethical urges acquire a personality. In spirituality it is called the being. Thus,

Conscience is the being of the ethical personality.

  • Everyone may speak of his conscience even when he has none.
  • The strange fact is conscience can be selfless or selfish.
  • It may be family conscience or communal conscience.
  • Conscience can also be irrational.

The fundamentalists who want to encourage terrorism and kill their enemies do act on their conscience. A conscience that encourages killing cannot be rational or even ethical.

  • Patriots talk of patriotic conscience, which leads him to die a hero for his country.
  • Consciousness is neutral. It can be mental consciousness, vital consciousness or physical consciousness.

By relating to the only entity that is conscious; the mind, vital, physical attain their own consciousness.

  • It is a vast progress for the animal man to acquire a conscience.

To be fettered by one's own conscience one becomes a conscientious member of the family or society. But, when one wants to awaken his SOUL and lead a spiritual life, his own conscience will stand in his way. He can make spiritual progress only when he outgrows his conscience.

  • Conscience is mistaken to be spiritual.

Consciousness also is mistaken to be spiritual by itself. Consciousness is what exists. It is spiritual only when it is in the spiritual plane.