Passage 5

So this discrimination is very necessary for us. When is this discrimination of use? When good and bad are mixed, when darkness and light come together, when heat and cold are both there: it is when two things come together in this way that discrimination is of use there. In man, both good and bad have come together. We must discriminate between this good and bad. How must this discrimination be made? Not with the mind. Not with the Buddhi: we must make it with our conscience. We usually take the Buddhi to be the power of discrimination. But even after the Buddhi has discriminated, our conscience may not agree. So, more important than anything is our conscience. This is our Master. It is most important. That is why it has been said, follow the Master. Who is your Master? Your conscience is your Master. Your Ātma is your Guru. Your Ātma is your God. Where has it come from? Why has it such sanctity? Because this conscience has come from consciousness. This consciousness is what fills everything everywhere. But today we are not following consciousness. We are following the senses. What is seen must not be followed just as it is seen. What is heard must not be followed just as it is heard. Whatever matter comes from the senses must all be handed over to the conscience. This conscience gives us the right answer. A small example.

A thief went to someone's house one night and stole. The next day the police caught him. But so as to escape, ‘I did not go out last night, I did not steal. I did not bring those things,’ he argues. This argument is an argument at one with the Buddhi and Manas. But as for the conscience: ‘You went out last night. You brought such-and-such a thing and put it in such-and-such a place’: so it tells the truth. That is why we must discriminate from this conscience. Then self satisfaction arises. Self satisfaction is very necessary. When does this self satisfaction come? It comes if you develop self confidence. Only when this self satisfaction has come does a man make self sacrifice.