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The Importance of Character in Spiritual Life

“Tranquility, restraint, austerity, purity, forgiveness, and uprightness, knowledge, wisdom, and faith in God are the duties of the brahmins, born of their innate nature.”
–Bhagavad Gita 18:42

It is time for vocabulary-building and review!

A brahmin is one striving for brahmajnana, so we must cultivate the qualities listed for them assiduously if we really plan to succeed in our spiritual quest. Here they are:

• Shama is calmness, tranquility, and control of the internal sense organs.
• Dama is self-control, control of the senses, and restraint.
• Tapas (tapasya) is austerity, practical (i.e., result-producing) spiritual discipline; spiritual force.
• Shaucha is purity and cleanliness, including physical and mental purity. Physical shaucha involves purity of diet–abstinence from meat, fish, eggs, alcohol, nicotine, and any mind-altering drugs.
• Kshama is forgiveness, patience, and forbearance.
• Arjava is straightforwardness, honesty, and rectitude.
• Jnana is knowledge, especially knowledge of (or about) Reality or Brahman, the Absolute.
• Vijnana is the highest knowledge, beyond mere theoretical knowledge. It is transcendental knowledge or knowing, a high state of spiritual realization in which all is seen as manifestations of Brahman. It is final knowledge of the Self.
• Astikyam is piety and belief in God.

What is to be noted about these traits is the fact that they are the prerequisites for spiritual life–they are not spiritual life itself, which is something even higher, the state of yogayukta, of continual uniting of the consciousness with God through yoga. It is sad to see that in most religions the things needed for being a beginner are considered the highest attainments.

Most important is the fact that these traits are not artificial or imposed modes of thought and deed, but are a manifestation of the brahmin’s swabhava–his inherent state of mind, his state of deep inner being. A brahmin is not one who acts like a brahmin, but who IS a brahmin and therefore acts accordingly.

The kshatriyas

“Heroism, majesty, firmness, skill, not fleeing in battle, generosity, and lordly spirit are the duties of the kshatriyas, born of their nature.”
–Bhagavad Gita 18:43

These are traits needed by us, too for as a person passes from lower to higher caste he retains his positive qualities. So we should consider the qualities of all the castes as necessary for us.

• Sauryam is heroism, valor, and strength.
• Tejas is radiance and brilliance of mind and spirit.
• Dhriti is the quality of being steadfast, constant, firm, patient, and endurant. It also means one possessed of the ability to engage in sustained effort.
• Dakshyam is skill, virtuosity, and dexterity. One who is daksha is expert, intelligent, wise, and able.
• Apalayanam is not fleeing battle or trying to avoid conflict.
• Danam is generosity, charity, and a giving disposition, as well as self-sacrifice.
• Ishwarabhava is a lordly disposition or spirit; nobility and dignity.

All these reveal the swabhava of a kshatriya.

The vaishyas and shudras

“Plowing, cow-herding, and trade are the duties of the vaishyas, born of their innate nature. Service is the duty of the shudras, born of their innate nature.”
–Bhagavad Gita 18:44

This is quite straightforward. It is interesting that only physical actions are listed, whereas both the brahmins and kshatriyas require many psychological factors. Obviously vaishyas and shudras require ethical principles as much as anyone else. In fact, all that has been said in the previous chapters of the Gita applies to all the castes.

Everyone–swakarma

Krishna now speaks of humanity in general, saying:

“Devoted to his own duty, a man attains perfection. Hear then how one who is devoted to his own duty finds perfection: By worshiping with his own proper duty Him from Whom all beings have their origin, Him by whom all this universe is pervaded, mind finds perfection.”
–Bhagavad Gita 18:45,46

We have already encountered swabhava and swadharma–the inmost disposition of the Self and the dharma (usually translated “duty”) that reveals the Self or makes attainment of the Self possible. In these two verses we meet the word swakarma: action that reflects or manifest the Self–at least in Its present state of evolution. To follow or engage in our swakarma is to worship God, for spiritual, evolutionary principles are not to be merely ascribed to or discussed, they are to be lived. That is how we evolve, and evolution is the sole purpose of creation.

Swakarma is an inseparable part of swadharma, so Krishna continues: “Better one’s own duty [swadharma], though imperfect, than the duty of another well performed; performing the duty prescribed by one’s own nature [swabhava], one does not incur evil.” (Bhagavad Gita 18:47) We are not talking here of “God’s will” in the awful fear-filled way of Western religion. We are talking of our own nature, which has been put into our hands and which we alone can perfect. If we violate our nature by work alien to that nature, however good it may appear or how much it may be praised by others, we incur evil, for we sin against ourself.

Therefore: “One should not abandon the duty to which one is born even though it be deficient. Indeed, all undertakings are enveloped by error as fire is by smoke.” (Bhagavad Gita 18:48) Two expressions in in verse are very important: sahajam karma and dosha.

Sahaja means that which is innate, actually inborn. Karma is action. So sahajam karma is that kind of action, that way of life, which is a natural expression of our innate character, of our deep mind. This must be engaged in, even though, as Krishna points out, all relative existence and action are obscured to a greater or lesser degree by dosha–dosha being imperfection, blemish, fault, or shortcoming. This is because of the innate nature of relativity itself, which fundamentally is Maya, or illusion.

We do the best we can with what we have. The reward is infinite.

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