Life Gets Better If We Listen
To The Voice of Our Conscience
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
“The sage should be calm, profound or
deep, difficult to fathom, illimitable and
immovable or not liable to be perturbed by
worldly circumstances like the tranquil ocean.”
(Swami Sivananda)
* Whenever a nation loses sight of universal ethics and wisdom and its population adopts materiality as its main God, many are those who become both spiritually blind and personally anxious. Such people cease to see, but they don’t know that they can’t see any longer. They go the wrong way, and are quick to accelerate. The student of theosophy must remain in peace even as he sees such a process unfold.
* A profound view of life liberates people from hurry and anxiety. It gives them inner peace. It makes them accept the diversity of life and even contrast. A balanced attitude paves the way to calmness, to love of nature, and sincere cooperation.
* A lot of time and energy is lost if people emotionally reject the facts as they are. The same amount of energy will be extremely helpful if it is used to work constructively. One must remember that defeat brings us lessons which can prepare our next victory. The only real defeat is not to try our best, once and again.
* Peace with oneself should not be set aside just because we dislike of this or that particular situation. Peace does not come from attachment to comfortable routines. Inner harmony results from strength and vigor. It is something that transcends our limitations but does not deny them.
* The Law of Justice and Equilibrium is omnipresent in Time and in Space. Every social scheme based on lust for power – whether global or local, big or small – will meet its deserved end in due time. The same principle applies to other forms of lust.
The Beginning of Blessings
* No theosophist should worry too much if he sees moral ignorance threatening a materialistic civilization.
* The beginning of blessings is invisible. A whole world of bright and elevating opportunities is often hidden behind a superficial collection of silly actions. The implosion of ignorance is a preparatory step for people to build something better.
* It is necessary to work on the various levels of consciousness at the same time. The roof and foundation are inseparable, and they interact with each other all the time. Karma is multidimensional. While keeping vigilance in every earthly matter, raise your consciousness. Purify your heart. Keep your eyes turned upwards and your feet firmly on the ground, and bliss will silently come to you.
* Life gets better when we take practical steps to be able to listen to the voice of our conscience. We then become conscious of having a higher presence next to us: the presence of an elevated point of view. Such a bright perception of life starts to call our attention to positive possibilities, to missed opportunities, to lessons we must learn and to small victories that we can expand.
Falsehood Destroys Itself
* In families, in local communities and the community of nations, falsehood destroys itself sooner or later. By meditating on Peace and practicing truthfulness, one helps organized hypocrisy to implode and disappear.
* Let us say something in a language that even a child can understand. There is a long, wooden nose in the face of those who stimulate hatred among nations, as a pretext to waste public money in weapons of mass destruction and similarly insane activities.
Swami Sivananda on Developing Vairagya
* When inner peace is accepted regardless of circumstances, theosophists attain a degree of wisdom and common sense.
* Personal detachment (Vairagya) liberates the pilgrim from excessive short-term worries and allows him to see the unity of All Life. Swami Sivananda wrote about the practical path to Vairagya:
* “Sensual pleasure is momentary, deceptive, illusory and imaginary. A mustard of pleasure is mixed with mountain of pain. Enjoyment cannot bring about satisfaction of a desire. On the contrary it makes the mind more restless after enjoyment through intense craving. Sensual pleasure is an enemy of Brahma-Jnana [Divine Knowledge]. Sensual pleasure is the cause for birth and death. The body is nothing but a mass of flesh, bones and all sorts of filth.”
* And he adds:
* “Place before the mind the fruits of Self-realisation or life in the Soul or Brahman or the Eternal, such as Immortality, Eternal Peace, Supreme Bliss, Infinite Knowledge.”
* “If you remember the above points always, the mind will be weaned from the craving for sensual pleasures. Vairagya, Viveka and Mumukshutva (dispassion, discrimination from the real and the unreal, and keen longing for liberation from birth and death) will dawn. You should seriously look into the defects of the sensual life (Dosha-Drishti) and into the unreal nature of worldly life (Mithya-Drishti).”
* “Read this once daily as soon as you get up from bed.” [1]
* How do wise men live, actually? Sivananda writes:
* “The sage should be calm, profound or deep, difficult to fathom, illimitable and immovable or not liable to be perturbed by worldly circumstances like the tranquil ocean. The ocean may receive volumes of water from the rivers at times or may receive no water at other times but it remains the same. Even so, the sage who has set his heart upon the Lord, neither swells with joy when he has an abundance of enjoyable objects, nor shrinks with sorrow when he has none.” [2]
NOTES:
[1] From the book “Sadhana”, by Swami Sivananda, published by The Divine Life Society, India, eleventh edition, 2019, 702 pages, see p. 280.
[2] “Sadhana”, by Swami Sivananda, eleventh edition, p. 163.
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The article “Thoughts Along the Road – 80” was published on the websites of the Independent Lodge of Theosophists on 03 January 2025. An initial and shorter version of it is part of the March 2022 edition of “The Aquarian Theosophist”, pp. 14-15.
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Read more:
* Other writings of Carlos Cardoso Aveline.
* Give Your Higher Self a Chance (by Donald J. Trump).
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Print the texts you study from the websites of the Independent Lodge. Reading on paper helps us attain a deeper view of philosophical texts. When studying a printed text, the reader can underline sentences and make handwritten comments in the margins that link the ideas to his personal reality.
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Helena Blavatsky (photo) wrote these words: “Deserve, then desire”.
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