Conscience, the God Within

by C. Devidasan

For a candle to dispel darkness, it has to burn itself out. For the raw gold to become pure it has to bathe in the fire and for the iron to become steel it is subjected to constant pounding once taken out of fire. Nothing is achieved without efforts, difficulties or sacrifice. When it comes to pursuing worthy goals, man willingly faces great pain, difficulties, hardships and sometimes even go to the extent of sacrificing his own life.

Strangely, when greed engulfs man, the values of life die hard inside him and he starts indulging in unworthy things. The ferocity of passion and grit shown by man in pure brutality of their crimes even at the cost of his own lives has stunned the psychologists all over the world—-on one side, man burns himself to spread light and happiness and on the other side the same man burns everything into ashes to spread miseries and darkness. Our conscience that polices our mind does not want the man to do unworthy things; but still he does it. Let us find out: what is conscience and what happens to it when a man commits a crime or cruelty?

Our heart catches the personality of a person while eyes are busy in catching his beauty. When there is a fight between mind and heart over issues, people often take the advice of the conscience which we know exists like the air we breathe or the personality which is not seen but only felt. Conscience is never biased nor can it be influenced. It feels truth, speaks truth and shows truth. World knows “Who we are”, but our conscience would tell us “What we are.” The conscience is God within ourselves. The Holy Spirit would only guide us right and would never give company for wrong deeds.

We feel a sense of well being when our mind and body work in perfect harmony. This natural harmony or balance is some times lost due to three counts--physical, mental or psychosomatic[1] reasons. While medical intervention is needed for physical illness, the genesis of mental and psychosomatic deceases can often be traced to injuries or influences caused to mind and/or body together by traumatic experiences themselves or traumatic experiences caused as a result of deliberate intake of substances that alters the physical and mental wellbeing of a person. For example, when abused, Drugs[2] alter the physical and mental well being of a person. While physical addiction can be treated with medical intervention, the mental addiction can only be treated with mental therapies, counseling etc. When mind is addicted, it forces the person to indulge in exactly what he is addicted to; be it drugs, an ideology, cruelty, sadism, rape, destruction or anything.

Even before one thinks to indulge in unworthy activities ([3]“I can not find any reason to condemn Him” St. John 18:38 (Bible), his conscience caution and tries to stop him. But if he goes ahead, his mind ignores it; but definitely not his conscience for it is destined to carry the Cross. It would give him sleepless nights and disturbed days. Mind when pursued, tames and takes the path shown to it, be it good or bad, worthy or unworthy. On the other hand when abused, conscience loses it connection to the divine, purity, and its command over the mind. When man loses his conscience, he loses his humanness and ability to differentiate right and wrong, good and bad and divine or evil. It would no longer matter to him whether his actions would bring pain, miseries, or destroy the happiness of people around him. The very man who has been created by God with His own hands (Then the Lord God took some soil from the ground and formed a man out of it; breathed life-giving breath into nostrils and the man began to live” Genesis 2:7), becomes capable of [4]cold blooded murder or destroying x-number of World Trade Centers.

We have seen children, grown in bonds of love and nurtured in care, listen to their conscience and follow its advice even if it causes them hardships; while the children who lacked care and love or brought up in stressful environments always strayed, not valuing their conscience, the God within, and often land in bad company. If you see closely, you would find that all virtues and values flow out of a strong conscience. Even if you have values and virtues, what good are they if your conscience is unable to guide you?

Man invented religion and discovered that he can reach God through religion. In fact, religion is nothing but a great institution which teach us the art of living and the spiritual leaders are its trainers. From time immemorial, man has understood the importance of nourishing and strengthening the God within every human being, making him worthy of living and helping the world to be a place free of danger, despair and inequality. To control the wavering mind, he taught what faith is—faith in self, religion and in God. For the mind to cool down the turbulence within, he taught #meditation, prayers, conducted religious choirs and fasting. For the mind to feel divinity he taught ahimsa[5] and compassion and yet the current century witnessed emotional and physical turmoil and turbulence. The wars raged every where; so did the fury of nature. Cities and lives were destroyed; so were the religious places. The secular nature of human mind was torn apart by religious fanatics, fundamentalists and terrorist outfits. In the mad rush for material gains, it appears that man has almost lost his friend, philosopher and guide--his conscience, the God within.

In short, this God within is none other than the Holy Spirit, who lives inside of us. This is what the fathers of the Syrian Orthodox Church refer to as “magnonutha.” The importance of being mindful to the Holy Spirit’s indwelling cannot be brushed aside.

1 - Psycho refers to mind and somatic refers to body; the term psychosomatic means the mind making the body ill or illnesses which have been created physically within the body by derangement of the mind.

2 - The drugs cannot give any “high” as is generally believed. When the drug enters the body, it burns up the precious minerals and nutrients to combat the toxin (drugs). This reaction gives the abuser a feeling of “high.” When a person feels “high,” he craves for more”high” and triggers a vicious cycle causing continuous abuse. This causes the various organs inside the body which works in “natural balance” to loose their balance due to unending combat with toxins and forces the abuser to take “more drugs” even if he wants to stop taking causing “physical addiction.” Drug depresses the “Central Nervous system” resulting the body loosing co-ordination of movements and addicts “the Mind” of the abuser leaving long lasting and often fatal results.

3 - The Historians argue that Jesus Christ’s death penalty was already decided and pre-meditated and hence he had to be crucified and finally it did happen. But what was reflected in the above words of the Pilate despite he knew that crucification would take place, was the voice of his conscience, which never tell lies or take sides.

4 - The Constitution of India, written by Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar, goes in to detail in explaining what is “Cold blooded” crime. Crime committed as a result of sudden influx of emotions triggered as a result of unplanned incidents sparking heated arguments (thus boils the blood) of the moment, etc., attract less punishment where as crimes committed in “cold blood” are often planned when the mind, body and the ‘blood’ is cool and cold solely and wholly with the intention of committing the crime by the person who committed the “cold blooded crime” and therefore could even attract capital punishment under IPC (Indian Penal Code) or else where in the world.

5 - Ahimsa or Non-violence in English means, “removal of the desire to kill.” In the presence of a man perfected in ahimsa (nonviolence), enmity (in any creature) does not arise.”—Yoga Sutras II:35
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Volume 1. Issue 4.