Synopsys:
Prejudice is pre-judgment. Our spiritual Master has
quoted prejudice as the greatest evil to a just and
balanced living. Prejudice is one of the major
impediments for our progress even in the higher realms
of spirituality.
An effort is made in the below article to discuss about
what is prejudice, what causes it, how it affects us and
how a sadhaka of PAM can work towards getting over this
negative thought pattern.
Article:
When we are not at ease with ourselves, that state is a
disease. This term is used primarily with reference to
our physical ailments or ill-health. In these cases, our
physical body is not in its normal healthy state and
hence is not at ease, referring to a state of disease.
Majority of the individuals in this world identify
themselves with their body. Hence, when one has a
physical disease, the ailing individual himself or a
doctor can diagnose it and there can be a medical help
along with empathy and sympathy from all around to
assist the individual. Majority of population in the
world pays no heed to diseases at the emotional or vital
plane, which are a result of spoiling of one’s heart
(through negative feelings) and mind (subsequent
negative thoughts). Just as body has its state of
disease, an uncultivated or unbalanced individual who is
not at ease and is struggling with any negative
emotional state is suffering with a spiritual disease.
Such a person’s heart and mind are at dis ease compared
its original state of happiness. Few such spiritual
diseases are expressing anger, hatred; experiencing
sadness, shame, fear, anxiety, anguish; showing
prejudice, disgust and the list is endless with many
hues and shades. Unfortunately, it’s not easy or simple
to identify and acknowledge any spiritual disease, leave
aside finding the right help. If only such a disease
(excluding deeper mental disorders, such as depression
and etc) is easily identifiable and acceptable, perhaps
the entire world might have turned in hordes towards
spirituality proper by now.
With this preamble, let us focus our attention on topic
of this article, prejudice;
which is one of the spiritual diseases, causing
disharmony and unhappiness to one and around. Let us
first understand what prejudice is.
What is prejudice?
The word prejudice refers to prejudgment, or forming
an opinion before becoming aware of the relevant
facts of a case. The word is often used to refer to
preconceived, usually unfavorable, judgments toward
people or a person because of gender, social class,
age, disability, religion, sexuality,
race/ethnicity, language, nationality or other
personal characteristics. Prejudice can also refer
to unfounded beliefs and may include "any
unreasonable attitude that is unusually resistant to
rational influence." [1]
As stated above, a prejudiced person judges others or
situations with preconceived or biased notions. Based on
his prejudiced heart and mind, he will react to
situations and other individuals without rationally
understanding the circumstances. The actual facts about
the person or situation may have little or no relevance
in his/ her judgments about the person or the situation.
It may be that even if the facts are presented, the
stronghold of preconceived notions will prevent the
person from seeing the truth. Basically, a prejudiced
person’s responses and reactions to others and
situations tend to be more or less fixed based on his
prejudiced feelings. Openness to understand and
empathize is lost to a prejudiced person. Above all, a
prejudiced heart is ‘unusually resistant to rational
influence’, thus creating a barrier for any advice or
help to heal it. The broader spectrum of prejudice
covers probably all the issues of the world. Following
are some examples to give us better clarity on this
subject;
-
Caste prejudice: An individual or a group of people
belonging to a particular caste are treated as
inferior vs. superior, based on their caste alone.
-
Prejudice against the skin color: White, black,
brown, etc. The color of an individual’s skin merits
the treatment meted to him, in the first look. It’s
a common prejudice in western countries.
-
Most common prejudice from times immemorial and
which only further escalated globally nowadays, all
in the name of God is the religious prejudices of
people who practice Christianity, Hinduism, Islam,
Judaism and all such religions, against each other.
Sub-religions and sects are prejudiced against each
other within the same religion. One has to only look
within oneself to see how deep rooted it is within
each of us. As an example, a Muslim name triggers
more searches and delays at airports in west and our
media plays no small part in glorifying these to
further the animosity and emotions across the globe.
-
Association with an institute (be it spiritual or
otherwise) prompting us to group all those belonging
to it in a particular way, based on our preconceived
notions and treat them based on these, rather than
on the individual merit.
-
Prejudiced against an individual based on his
external behavior or talk. Irrespective of no known
wrong doing or behavior, we can be prejudiced
against friends and family of the individual whom we
don’t like. We avoid them or treat them differently,
irrespective of no harm done to us in action or
thought by them.
-
If we are prejudiced about a person, even if there
is an important message for us from that person, we
won’t be open to receive it. We may not be
interested in listening to that individual’s talks
or read his/ her writings. We have a biased notion
on what we expect from that person and hence we
won’t be receptive to the message, even if we listen
or happen to come across his/ her writings. Who
knows this might be the answer for a problem we are
struggling for a long time, only to miss it due to
our prejudice about the individual.
-
Prejudiced about the expected results of a spiritual
path. We expect our progress to be in a certain way
without verifying the results with an open mind.
This is an unfortunate problem for those who come
into our system with the knowledge of scriptures or
having practiced other systems. As our revered guide
stated, they “interpret the works and messages of
the Master according to their prejudice and trying
to fit the thesis of the Master with what they
consider as scriptural authority”.[2]
-
Prejudiced about our own strengths and weaknesses,
preventing help from others including the spiritual
help from trainers.
-
The worst form of prejudice would be having notions
about the people who are seeking spiritual help from
us. Vice versa is also true, which is those who are
seeking spiritual help are being prejudiced about
the people who can offer the help. In either case,
the damage is severe.
-
Etc (endless such examples).
As can be seen from the above examples, prejudice is
typically an opinion formed beforehand without adequate
evidence. Let us first try to understand, what causes
prejudice, before we discuss about how to address it in
PAM.
What causes prejudice?
Prejudice is an impression and hence all factors that
cause impressions in us, play a role in creating and
enhancing prejudices in us. While that is true, to have
a focused discussion, we will try to look at the works
in the field of psychology, sociology and spirituality
to analyze and understand the causes of prejudice.
1.
Authoritarian personality: German Sociologist,
Theodor Adorno contended that, people are prejudiced
because of certain inherent needs associated with their
personality. People do not become prejudiced simply
based on negative encounters with others. His research
shows that many prejudiced people have a distinct set of
personality traits centered on conformity, intolerance
and insecurity. He states that these tendencies to be
prejudiced are associated with a particular personality
type, namely the ‘authoritarian personality’.[3]
Adorno, borrowing from Freud, argues that people with
authoritarian personalities have an unusually strong
need to scapegoat and to project. These are the key
reasons for their prejudice.
-
Scapegoating can be referred as displaced
aggression. Tendency of this person is to blame
one's troubles on someone else.
-
Projection is a similar concept where the
individual denies particular characteristics in
him/her self but notices them in others.
These behaviors are the result of unique childhood
experiences involving repressed drives. The
authoritarian personality results from family
environment. Parents are themselves "cold, aloof,
disciplinarian and themselves bigots”. A bigot is a
person who is intolerant of any ideas other than his or
her own, esp on religion, politics, or race.
2.
Social learning: Adoption of prejudiced attitudes
can occur throughout one’s life-cycle. Attitudes and
behaviors are learned within a social context. Family,
School, Peer Groups, Work Environment and etc can be the
training ground for creating prejudiced attitudes. Media
plays a huge role in this. By constant exposure to a
media source (TV, News media, Movies or Social
Networks), the individual might receive stereotyped
information, which can lead to prejudices on countries,
states, groups, people and etc.[3]
3.
Socioeconomic Status and Education: Prof. John
Farley contends that there is a relatively strong
relationship between ones social class and the level of
prejudice. Higher levels of prejudice are seen in people
of lower Socioeconomic Status. One argument suggests
that people with lower socio-economic backgrounds are
more rigid thinkers. People of higher socio-economic
strata are often better educated and education is often
seen as a way to breaking down oversimplified,
stereotypical thinking. As we become better educated,
we become better able to understand complex ideas and
situations. Farley however concludes that our ability to
handle complex thought is affected by other conditions
besides educational levels. He notes that we tend to
rely on stereotypes more when we are busy, overwhelmed,
or even functioning at a non-optimal time.[3] This tends
to point out that for a modern man, who is ever busy;
the education by itself is not a safeguard against
prejudice.
4.
Coverings (Avarana): This aspect is not in the
scope of psychology. For spiritual seekers who accept
that consciousness is eternal, the coverings (avaranas)
of the consciousness that are carried into the current
life from prior births can cause an individual to
develop prejudiced personality. This individual can be
predisposed to have unreal projections of his / her
mind.
For many in this world, these prejudiced thought
patterns might not matter much, as that’s how their
minds have been trained so far and they continue to live
with these streams of thoughts. These become relevant
only for an individual, who is seeking to transform his
inner apparatus of thoughts to higher level of thoughts.
In our spiritual system, the goal is to be a real man,
which means to be just and balanced under all
circumstances. One can’t reach this goal, without
getting rid of prejudiced thoughts and feelings.
Why should we get rid of prejudice?
Rev Babuji emphatically stated that, “Prejudice is the
greatest evil, rather the deadliest poison to spiritual
life. It keeps one confined to oneself, losing all
access to a broader vision. It creates narrow-mindedness
and all prospects of development and progress are lost
to those who pin their souls to it. Prejudice breeds
hatred towards others and it is nothing but a feeling of
false self-superiority in a disguised form. If you
nurture this evil, you thereby add one more link to the
existing chain of egoism. Consequently you remain
farther away from reality. The realization of the
Limitless thus becomes impossibility.”[4]Master stated
it and we should simply accept it to be the EVIL and do
everything possible to get rid of this disease. There
are many mental diseases out there and some were listed
at the beginning of this article. Of all these and many
more that were not listed, Master called out prejudice
to be the greatest evil and deadliest poison for
spiritual path. We will use our Master’s statement as
the basis to further understand about prejudice and the
harm it causes to one’s spiritual pursuit.
-
A prejudiced man is self centered, in the areas
he is prejudiced about. For example, those who
are prejudiced about a religion can’t accept
people of that religion with openness. This
might not affect his acceptance of his own
religion people. However, his broader acceptance
is hindered as he can’t accept people of all
religions. Religious person or an atheist, going
by the basic premise of our Master’s system,
each individual has the same ‘original source or
divinity’ in them and not able to accept anyone
only means, to that extent we are still hindered
in our acceptance of the Master in all. This
impacts our ability to follow commandments of
Rev Sriramchandra and we are not able to change
our attitudes to live a balanced life.
-
When we judge, we are in the realm self
centeredness. All judgments are in the rational
plane, either favoring or disapproving.
Spiritual or divine plane is supra rational.
Only when we let go our capacity to judge, we
can get access to the Master’s plane, which is
the Ocean of Bliss Waves or everlasting
happiness. This is the broader vision we need to
crave for and this is only possible if we let go
judgmental nature and surrender to the Master.
There is no great development or progress in
Spirituality without surrendering to the Master.
Prejudice (pre-judgment) is worse than judgment
and a prejudiced person struggles in his
surrender to Master’s will.
-
The essence of Universal (9 PM) prayer is lost
to a prejudiced person. Would it be possible to
merely recite this prayer without feeling one
being connected to all humans? If we are
prejudiced and can’t accept or tolerate a part
of the humanity mentally, our prayer can’t be
inclusive of ALL and to that extent it is
limited.
-
By being prejudiced towards an individual or a
group of people, for his or their perceived
actions or non-actions, we create negative
impressions in our psyche. Our notions about
him, either true or untrue will lead us to
brooding negative thoughts about him. Even if
that person has changed and is different than
what we knew him to be, still our mind works
with a predefined structure of thoughts and
feelings, preventing us from understanding him.
The offspring of this is hatred towards him. The
mere name of that person can cause negative
thought patterns in us and we are chained by
these thoughts. A time may come, when these
negative thoughts are all cooked to a boiling
pot, when they burst out into action, causing
harm to the individual and people around him. If
seen from this perspective, it’s easy to
appreciate all the unnatural fights, events and
perhaps even deaths that have occurred due to
the uncontrolled hatred and anger in the heat of
the moment, which to some extent have prejudiced
notions in their back drop.
-
Many are the shades of the ego and prejudice is
another disguised form of ‘ahamkar’. In Silence
Speaks, Master states that, “As I could discover
after a life's experience, the greatest
obstruction on the path of spirituality is
offered by our feelings of partiality and
prejudice, which may be roughly assumed as a
type of ahamkara.”[5] Why is it so? When we
judge, we are internally feeling we have a
‘better capacity’ to either understand the
situation or the individual in the situation.
Internal feeling is, either I know more
(intelligent) or I am enabled better (skilled)
or I am spiritually more capable (pure) or
similar such endless self admiring feelings. It
may be true that we are endowed by God with a
better capacity to handle the situation, but the
moment we have any of these self superiority
feelings we are into judgmental realm. It’s akin
to what Master says, ‘If a tiger feels he is a
tiger, he will pounce upon his own cubs. If a
man thinks himself to be a man he will torment
others like a demon’.[6] Instead of an
empathetic approach to the situation, we are
lost into handling the situation from ‘one
above’ status. In empathetic handling, there is
love and concern to see the other person gets
benefited. In judgment we see the person and
look down upon him and address the situation.
There is a huge difference. This is the reason
Master states that prejudice is a disguised form
of self-superiority. It is disguised and we are
not even aware that we are forming judgments
about individuals due to our thoughts and
actions. This wisdom is a tough one to get and
even hard to retain.
-
“When we get into this aspect that one is
superior and other is inferior, then there is
Vivakshatha”.[7] This is cell #13 in ‘Game of
Life’ published by Imperience. This is one of
the cells to cross while traversing knot 1. It
would a very tough one to cross for a prejudiced
person.
-
If we are prejudiced about someone and breeding
negative thoughts about that person or a group
of people, then at thought level we are causing
harm to them. If we understand thought power is
superior to physical prowess, then we see what
harm we are doing in here to others through
thought. No physical harm being done by us, but
worse is the harm we are doing at the thought
level by brooding negative thoughts. Indirectly
we are hurting our own consciousness, as it gets
clouded with darkness.
-
To comprehend about ‘realization of limitless’,
one should read from the Imperience compilation
of ‘Basic writings of Sri Ramachandra’ and
derive the real essence of it. In more practical
terms, we have defined real man as, ‘the one who
is just and balanced under all circumstances’.
If we allow prejudiced thought patterns to seep
into our consciousness and if we allow them to
be nurtured in the nursery of our brain, we
can’t be balanced in our thoughts and subsequent
actions. The resulting problem is that we can’t
follow Master’s commandments. A prejudiced
person can’t be plain and simple. It’s even
possible that a prejudiced heart know not how to
repent, as the negative brooding could cloud the
heart, adding to egoistic feelings. All these
will cause the prejudiced person to remain
farther away from realization of the
Masterliness within himself.
-
We can’t enter into the divine realm with
our prejudiced heart and mind. A prejudiced
person will have difficulty waiting on the
Divine Master during meditations.
‘Expectation of the meditative experience’
dominates his meditations and all
experiences are judged from preconceived
expectations. These expectations are formed
either hearing from others, through study of
religious literature or previous religious /
spiritual practices. This causes him to miss
out on the divine company, which is nothing
but a plain and simple state, more commonly
imperienced as silence. Our beloved guide
Rev Sri KCN expresses his anguish on this
aspect by stating, “The malady of the modern
man is his habit of perennially polluting
Silence with thoughts just as we pollute the
world’s great rivers with the vile waste of
humankind. Many aspirants somehow think they
can enter silence taking their prejudices
with them and they cling to these
preconceived ideas of what Silence is. As a
result, they do not truly dive deep into the
Silence. The reason is that to let go of
such ideas is to let go of the sense of
oneself, to let go of identity, and that is
death to the ego.”[8] This profound
statement calls for sincere introspection
and one should make a firm determination to
get rid of all our prejudices, be it in
material plane or spiritual plane.
How to get over prejudice in PAM?
First and foremost we need to be aware of an issue to
resolve it. We need to be aware that we encourage
prejudiced thoughts in our thought patterns. To get this
awareness is the biggest challenge. Our mind has been
habituated to generate many thought patterns for a very
very long time and most of the time we are not even
aware what thoughts get generated in our mind. The
stream of thoughts is so polluted that we can’t decipher
good thought from bad one and we carry on with our life
being unaware of our thoughts and feelings. This is the
reason many of us have difficulty noticing prejudiced
thoughts, leave aside getting rid of them.
Mind is a mere tool, is only known to a fortunate few
and we the aspirants of PAM are blessed in this regard
with the possibility of this awareness. Master has
graciously provided meditational practices, which when
diligently practiced along with the help of Pranahuti,
our mental faculties or anthahkarana (manas, chit,
buddhi and ahankar) will start getting cleansed. This
cleaning of anthahkarana starts happening from day one
of being introduced into the system. This improves
discriminative intelligence (viveka) in us, which
enables us to discern our thought patterns. Even when
Master grants us the Viveka in this regard, to hold on
to this and imbibe this as wisdom requires significant
contemplation and untiring self monitoring on the part
of an abhyasi. As purity of these faculties increases,
we can peep into our thought patterns, with courage and
confidence.
Meditational practices are the ‘ways’ to know of our
prejudiced thought patterns and also the ‘means’ to get
rid of our prejudiced thought patterns. When we go deep
in our meditations, waiting on the great Master, our
conscious and subconscious thoughts float up. Depending
on how deep this impression is, it leaves a sort of
reminder ‘to deal with it’. If this thought is of
repetitive nature and we get it frequently in our
meditations, then it’s an important impression that we
can’t just ignore it. The important aspect to note is,
immediately after mediation if we remember any of the
thoughts from meditation, then we shouldn’t simply brush
aside these. We need to make a mental note of these and
contemplate what’s causing these impressions to settle
in our consciousness. We all know this process and we
are not discussing anything new in here. We should
contemplate on these and identify what is the basic
nature and root cause of these thoughts. When these
thoughts are of lower nature, we should see if we can
categorize them into the types of thoughts, such as
despair, guilt, fear, anger, judgmental and etc. When
these judgmental thoughts are getting generated due to
preconceived notions, then they are based on our
prejudices. We need to see what activities in us are
resulting in these thoughts and work towards improving
in those areas. This is the essence of moulding our
being to cooperate with the Master’s work. After a
period of sincere practice in PAM, we will start having
an awareness of our thoughts in our daily life. We
should contemplate on the nature of such thoughts and
address them diligently; similar to how we discussed
about handling thoughts remembered after meditations.
It would be pertinent to note that, even when we become
aware of the fact that we entertain prejudiced or
judgemental thoughts, we might be not inclined to get
rid of these. This is a strange state due to one’s own
ahamkara. A stage would come for many abhyasis, wherein
they are aware of their judgemental nature, but due to
their unwillingness to let go their self importance,
they wouldn’t be willing to yield to the Great Master
during meditations to let go these thoughts. As letting
go of these thoughts is akin to losing control of the
circumstances or people around, unfortunately the
abhyasi, even after having sufficient Viveka, would
instead encourage these thoughts, spoiling the heart and
mind. It’s in here, the determination to reach the goal
should be firmed up, to let go these prejudiced
thoughts. Reading the works of the Masters of the Order,
especially Sriramchandra’s commandments with sincere
prayerful heart could help in this regard. The challenge
might be that, the goal itself is not clearly
understood. The abstract notions about Master or
Nothingness at the intellectual level may prevent the
individual to peep into the real essence. It perhaps
would be better to understand the goal in more practical
terms, as a just and balanced living under all
circumstances. If an individual can deeply contemplate
this and when it truly seeps into the consciousness then
it becomes easy to realize that prejudiced notions or
feelings coupled with self importance will wreck havoc
to a peaceful environment in and around. What good is
it, if one is not happy and folks around that one is not
happy either? What kind of saintliness are we preaching,
when it can’t be practiced? All this seems easy to
accept when read, but to practice, as Sir Francis Bacon
quoted, one has to read, chew and digest. Till then, the
dramas of the intellect and superiority have their own
play. To
quote William James, considered the Father of US
Psychology, “A great many people think they are thinking
when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.”[9]
This calls for serious introspection. The abhyasi has to
contemplate deeply and firm up his / her resolve to live
a harmonious life by getting rid of all prejudiced
thought patterns, so that he / she is not forming a
curvature in our spiritual path.
It’s important to note that, it’s not that all the
prejudiced impressions will lead to strong negative
patterns. Majority of us carry prejudiced impressions,
based on some small incidents or events which though are
not strong impressions, they are still impressions we
allowed to settle in our psyche. They keep raising their
ugly head once in awhile. If not completely extinguished
from our inner apparatus, they can sprout into saplings
and grow in strength at an opportune time. This is why
Master says, we shouldn’t nurture this evil. The only
way to get over this evil is strictly adhering to the
meditational practices of the Master, abiding by His
commandments and take regular assistance of Pranahuti.
No amount of crooning over constant remembrance alone
can help us eradicate this evil from our being. We have
to practice the system with sincerity.
The purification process has to be followed assiduously
and no negative thought should be entertained during the
duration of the cleaning. One can be effective in this
practice, if one understands that prejudice is a
spiritual disease and in our purification process, we
are explicitly maintaining a thought or feeling that we
are ‘removing dirt and disease’. The intellectual
appreciation of the words dirt and disease would make
our task more effective. During purification we remove
the dirt we gathered in our inner system through our
sensory inputs. Over a period of time, if not regularly
cleansed, this dirt gets accumulated. This dirt along
with our existing unrefined inner apparatus, form a
fertile ground for spiritual diseases. During our
purification, we are making a firm will to clean all
such dirt and disease. All thoughts and feelings should
be cleansed without paying undue attention to them.
When we judge, we see people and not the Master in them.
When we judge we are comparing and contrasting the
individual merits and demerits, and in the process we
lose our ability to empathize with them. A mellowed
heart only can accept others lapses without any
judgment. Heart is only mellowed, by “knowing one’s own
fallacies” and submitting these to the Great Master
seeking forgiveness. Bedtime prayer has to be
assiduously attended by the sadhaka to get over
prejudices. Our prayer at bedtime is superior to all the
known prayers, as we are asked to seek forgiveness for
the mistakes committed ‘unknowingly’ and not just for
the mistakes committed and known to us. If we are
conscious that we committed a mistake either in thought,
action and deed; then it becomes all the more important
to pray and seek forgiveness. This is the surest way to
guard us against the prejudiced feelings.
Prejudice is an unreal projection (Vikshepa) of our mind
and Pranahuti assistance is a vital necessity to get rid
of it. Trainers attend to our cleaning on regular basis,
but without our co-operation the resulting benefits are
limited. If we don’t have awareness that our mind is
prone to prejudiced thoughts, then even after the
trainers work, we easily succumb back to these. This is
why we started this discussion by saying that we first
need to be aware of a problem to resolve it. Once we are
aware of our prejudiced thought patterns and sincerely
attend to our meditation practices and submit these as
our lapses to the Great Master in our prayers, then we
‘co-operate’ with our trainer in getting rid of these
over a period of time.
An individual can be aptly called as a sadhaka- when he
follows a particular sādhanā, or a way of life designed
to realize the goal of his ultimate ideal.
When we, as sadhaka’s of PAM, assiduously seek Master in
the core of our heart, by diligently attending to our
individual practices and regularly taking the assistance
of the Pranahuti, our progress is assured in the system
of natural path. By Master’s grace, as we move into
higher conditions the tight grip of prejudice from our
consciousness will start loosening and it’s bound to
fall off from our consciousness. As we progress in the
pind-desh and attain higher levels of balance, it
becomes easier to get over this. As discussed in the
Path of Grace, “The 5th knot is a state of balance which
on maturity gives to the craving of going beyond the
limitations of the body. Body awareness is totally lost
and one finds himself expanding. Prejudices and
conflicts die down.”[10] As we reach this condition,
there is an aspiration to remain balanced and maintain
harmony in and around. This aspiration will not allow
any kind of prejudice to take shape in our being. We
will understand that any negative thought, be it
prejudice or other such, will only affect our own
consciousness. At this stage the practicant’s only
motivation is to be in synch with Master’s
Consciousness. The practicant would like to do all
possible to remain in His Consciosuness. Openness which
is typically lost to a prejudiced person is now within
the reach of the sadhaka and it will sprout with
Master’s blessings and with practicant’s untiring self
scrutiny and submission of lapses to the Great Master in
his prayers.
As one moves and stabilizes in higher regions our
nearness with the Master increases further. As the
nearness to the Lord increases, Rev Sri KCN Sir assures
us that, “So far the condition of the aspirant is such
that he was carefully guarding his lapses and putting it
before the Master but at the same time was never
hesitant to point out the lapses on the part of others.
As the Lord Buddha said ‘a man winnows his neighbours’
faults like chaff, but his own faults he hides, as a
cheat hides the false die from the gambler.’ It is so
far the habit of talking ‘truths’ about others or what
their Ahankara suggests to them as ‘truths’ about others
and always placing themselves at the level of a judge.
This is one of the worst Ahankaric coverings that is got
rid off by the grace of the Master before entering the
realm of piety which is a very high condition.”[11] This
assures us that, on our march towards freedom, we are
sure to get rid of all these negative thought patterns.
One has to have firm confidence in one’s own ability to
get rid of these and unwavering faith on the Master’s
assistance through Pranahuti to remove these from our
consciousness. This is the only way to a happy living.
Let us end this article with Rev Babuji’s concluding
statements from his message ‘Path of Righteousness’, “I
earnestly pray that all of us, leaving our prejudices,
may come to the path of righteousness which promises
Liberation.” Let us all hope and pray we will take His
advice to the heart, leaving aside all our prejudiced
notions, habits, patterns; live in happiness and harmony
with all, enriching every second of our life with a
sense of freedom living, moving and abiding in HIM.
Pranams.
References:
1.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prejudice
(referenced on November 27th, 2013)
2.
Path of Grace, Pg 364
3.
http://dmc122011.delmar.edu/socsci/rlong/race/far-02.htm
(referenced on Novemeber 25th, 2013)
4.
Basic Writings of Sriramchandra, Pg 177
5.
Showers of Divine Grace, Pg 501 (http://www.sriramchandra.org/Books/SS/SSChap_9.htm)
6.
http://www.sriramchandra.org/Books/SDG/SDGChap_11.htm
7.
Ecstasy and Agony in Journey to Infinity, Pg 22
8.
http://www.sriramchandra.org/Books/BP7/BP7chap_9.htm
9.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/williamjam109175.html
(referenced on December 7th, 2013)
10.
Path of Grace, Pg 288 & 289
11.
Path of Grace, Pg 209
