Consciousness, not conscience matters

FROM our childhood we have been told to act out of our conscience. These were just social rules that were laid down by society for some justice and peace to prevail in society. But it is very important to understand the difference between conscience and consciousness.

A man, who has real consciousness, can’t hurt others or kill others, because he feels others as an extension of himself. A person with conscience may not kill with knife, but he will kill with words because his being is violent. With conscience, we may be socially non-violent, but with consciousness, our being will be non-violent.

Morality should be based on consciousness, not on conscience. When this happens there will be no need for rules. Because our love for ourselves and society (which is only an extension of ourselves) will be so great that we will never think of disturbing or harming anybody.

A serial killer has no consciousness, which is why he does what he does. The fact that he does not abide by societal rules, what religion and moral studies would term as conscience, is only a secondary issue arising out the first. If he had consciousness of his existence, he would be aware that he is the same as every other being and would not harm another being.

Conscience is a poor substitute for consciousness. In the meditation program called NSP (Nithya Spurana Program), I help people to experience at least one glimpse of consciousness, so they can start living with consciousness instead of conscience. Anything based on conscience is skin deep, it’s not eternal, but anything based on consciousness is eternal. We should work for conscious experience. Just because we don’t have conscious experience, we should not compromise with conscience. Our morality, understanding, lifestyle everything should be based on consciousness. When it’s based on conscience, it’s based on fear and greed.

If the idea that we should not speed on the highway is based on fear, when we don’t see a cop’s car we will speed up. It becomes tempting to break laws, and we feel courageous. Whenever anything is followed because of fear and greed, we will be waiting for the chance to break the rule. Kids saying no to parents have a similar basis, and it makes them feel they’ve proved themselves. If morality is based on conscience, we will always do something to violate it, directly or indirectly.