Duty and Cosmic Will
Divine Life
Society Publication: Duty and
Cosmic Will by Swami Sadananda
There are different notions about
duty, not only in different countries, but also in the same country, among
different grades of society. We may say that duty comes up only when society
has been formed. There is a danger of the strong attacking the weak, and,
therefore, civilized man requires that some control should be exercised by the
strong over themselves lest they should do harm to the weak.
We may, therefore, say that
duty varies from time to time according to the stage of development reached by
society. Yet, there are certain fundamental principles which do not get
changed. For instance, the idea that one should love another as oneself is a
duty which underlies all other forms of duty. In short, we can say that there
are one’s duty to the community and one’s duty to oneself.
What should one do to make
oneself happy and what should one do to see that he does not create unhappiness
to his neighbours? That is the essence of real duty. When one thinks of oneself,
one has to ask the question of what one is. Though one is not the body, or the
mind, or the dweller in the body only, one is all these as long as one is in
the world and alive. Therefore, one has a duty to one’s body, a duty to one’s
mind, and a duty to the indweller.
As long as a person refrains
from causing any injury to another person’s body, and as long as he refrains
also from causing trouble to another’s mind, he may be said to have performed a
part of his duty. This is a negative aspect of one’s duty to one’s neighbours,
but there is also the positive aspect.
One should do as much as one
can to promote real happiness in one’s neighbours. Giving solace to the
afflicted and serving the sick, etc., constitute some of the positive aspects
of one’s duty. Now it may be asked why one should help another. The answer is
that one has already received help from many others from childhood and that at
least for the purpose of returning the obligation one should help the others as
much as one can.
The obligation which he has
already received is a debt which has to be discharged. Beyond the help received
from the neighbours, or human beings, there is the help received from nature
itself.
In our scriptures they speak
about the Devas, or the gods, that are responsible for the benefits conferred
upon man in the form of rains, etc. Therefore, it is said in the Bhagavad
Gita that if one does not discharge one’s duties to the Devas but lives
only for himself, he is like a thief, because he gets something for which he
does not pay anything at all.
We are often in a condition in
which different duties come into conflict. This refers obviously to our duty to
the world. The conflict really arises because one sometimes is unable to find
out which duty is to be emphasised more than the other.
For instance, to take an
ordinary example, we speak of Ahimsa or non-injury. Suppose a tiger is attacking
a man. Is it the duty of an onlooker to kill the tiger, or to let the tiger
attack the man? The principle of Ahimsa might be interpreted to mean Ahimsa or
non-injury to the tiger as well. In that case the man would die. If he kills
the tiger and saves the man, he will be saving one soul at the expense of
another. Can he be sure that the soul of a man is superior to the soul of a
tiger? In such cases what is the answer to be given? The answer must come from
within oneself. If according to the best of the onlooker’s intelligence, as it
has been given to him, he thinks that saving the soul of a man at the expense
of the soul of a tiger is better, he must save the man. It is therefore,
ultimately a solution reached by himself.
There are in the world
innumerable instances of conflicts of duties, all of which can be solved only
by the exercise of one’s own intellect. He is saved from the liability of sin
if his conscience is clear, and if he has made a genuine effort. God will
approve of every solution coming from any individual, provided there has been a
genuine, sincere effort made by him, without any selfish motive, for the
purpose of being helpful to another. Thus, ultimately, it is the conscience
that decides in each case the duty that one has to perform.
God’s Will is Cosmic Will.
Otherwise, since cosmos is only a practically dead thing without intelligence
in it, it will be difficult to understand how it can have a will of its own.
Without belief in God, belief in Cosmic Will or Cosmic Momentum becomes
superfluous. One can be in harmony with God’s Will only if one knows what it
is. The question, therefore, arises whether it is possible at all to know the
Will of God.
To know anything we must have
some kind of relationship between the object and ourselves; especially in the
case of God’s Will or the mind there must be a kind of sameness between our
will or mind and God’s Will or God’s Mind. Is there anything like that? The Upanishads
declare that we are only part and parcel of the Ultimate Reality, or God.
That is the reason why it is possible for us to have some kind of conception
relating to what God wills.
The question arises only when
situations arise requiring us to decide what we should do and what we should
not do. Till then we act more or less like automatons as impulses guide us. But
during critical periods we are not quite clear what should be done and what
should not. We have no clear means to know what we can do to understand the
Will of God. It is possible to get the right solution by a careful
examination of ourselves.
We will notice that anything
that we do has to be previously thought about. Thinking is the function of the
mind. In the mind arise ideas. Ideas express either something relating to
knowledge, or to feeling, or to willpower. Every one of us is guided by one’s
feeling. The feeling might be good or bad. The man who wants to avoid the bad
and allow only good ideas to arise in his mind exercises that part of his mind
which is called intellect. He decides by right thinking that bad feeling should
not be allowed to predominate and that only good feelings ought to be allowed
to rule over oneself.
Even after this, man finds it
necessary to exercise his will, which is another aspect of his mind, to act
according to the decision arrived at by the intellectual aspect of his mind.
When he does that he may be said to have used all the powers of his mind for
doing any particular act. There is no further responsibility for him. He has
done his best because he has exercised both his intellect and his will for the
avoidance of the evil thought and the promotion of the good thought.
Ultimately, therefore, it is the feeling aspect of the mind that has to undergo
proper scrutiny.
When we examine the feeling,
as and when it arises in the mind, we get the clue to what we have been
accustomed for a very long time to do, either in our past life or in this life
itself. Suppose a person finds a 100-rupee note lying on the road without
anybody apparently observing it, what will be the reaction in his mind? If he
has been accustomed to grab things, with or without any justification, his mind
will first tell him, "Take the money for yourself." But if his mind
has been trained in the past lives, or in this life itself, not to grab things
which are not his, he will go away without caring for the money that lies on
the road, or hand it over to the nearest police station. It does not belong to
him, and he does not want it.
It is on such an occasion that
he has to examine the reaction, and, from the reaction, judge about his past
life. If the reaction is to grab, he can come to the conclusion that he has
been a greedy person in his previous life, and it is this tendency to be greedy
that shows itself in the present life also. It becomes all the more necessary,
therefore, for him to see that he does not allow this impulse to predominate,
and he should make the best effort he can by the exercise of his intellect and
will-power to wipe out that tendency to be greedy. If he does that, he acts in
such a way as would give the greatest satisfaction to God. That is God’s Will,
and that is the way in which he can perform a duty which is in harmony with
God’s Will. Therefore, the solution to the question of knowing God’s Will
consists in this. Analyse your own impulses. If they happen to be bad impulses,
involving injury to others, untruthfulness, incontinence, avarice and
dishonesty, avoid all these; they are not God’s Will. If contrary, they are the
Will of God, which have to be judged by a motiveless, pure conscience. This is
the fundamental duty that everyone has to keep before one’s mind for all time.
Excerpts from:
Duty
and Cosmic Will by Swami Sadananda
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