Keep Your Conscience Awake, Alive and Alert
By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
3 June 2023
"Zameer Jise Kahte Hain,
Khameer-E-Kirdaar Hai Woh."
(What's called conscience is the very
essence of an individual's character)
Mirza Asadullah Khan 'Ghalib' in a letter to his friend Altaaf Hussain Hali ' Panipati '
from Dastambu, his collection of missives, mainly in Persian but there're a few
letters in Urdu as well
"Reason temporarily may get eclipsed,
but the sun of remorse shines and blazes through eventually."
Shams-e-Tabriz from ' Divan-e-Kebir '
also known as ' Divan-e-Shams'
One of the most insightful quotations I've
ever read in life is: 'Everything that happens once can never happen again. But
everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time' (Paulo Coelho,
The Alchemist). This is very true. Every human being must be given a second
opportunity so that he/she can wipe the slate clean and start afresh.
Psychologists have found that there's a
sense of remorse and repentance in every individual. Most of the individuals
try to mend their ways and never repeat their transgressions, mistakes and
blunders. They try to reform themselves and they succeed. At the same time,
there's no getting away from the fact that there're people, who're devoid of
any sense of remorse and they keep repeating their mistakes. But they
constitute a miniscule. Maximum people are first time offenders and they never
repeat their offences.
There's a beautiful axiom in Dhammapad,
'Only when you've made mistakes to the extent of not being able to exceed
further, you introspect and find that there's a new person emerging within and
that person has no flaws of your earlier self.' This saying of Buddha has
always intrigued me but I understood its import only after making a series of
mistakes in life. We all learn how to swim when we're in the water. However
great a coach you may have to guide you, unless you jump into the swimming
pool, you cannot learn how to swim. Before making and realising my mistakes, I
liked Buddha's maxim but could never understand its inner meaning. Let blunders
happen. A point in life comes when we become aware of them and that's the
turning point. Most of the individuals realise and change their paths to tread
on a completely new one. And that's life, the greatest teacher. There's nothing
that can never be changed. Human beings are malleable. They're pliable. Some of
them may be perennially stubborn and rigid. But they're mere exceptions. Our
conscience keeps us awake. Even if we're in a slumberous state of committing
wrong doings, there're dreams of warnings. And we must be heedful to them.
There's a beautiful parable (said to be
true) written by a famous Bengali writer Tarashankar Bandopadhyay: There was a
man in a remote village. He'd come to the town to meet his beloved. Both loved
each other. Since she was a TB patient, she couldn't walk that much to go and
meet her lover in a far-flung village. The man started getting tired of coming
all the way from his village to the town to meet the woman and was also scared
of the contagious disease his beloved was suffering from. He began to fabricate
excuses about his inability to come and see her. One day a child came and gave
him a letter. It was written by that woman. She could see through her lover's
alibis. She requested to come and meet her for the last time.
The man rushed to meet her. She was about
to die. When she saw him, her last words were: 'My love, never lie in love' and
she died. Struck by a blow of remorse, the man never recovered and died
demented. We all have conscience and we need to keep it awake, alive and alert.
This is also an unmistakable sign that
we're capable of repenting and when we repent, we reinvent (ourselves). Ashk-e-Pashemaani
Ne Mujhe Paak Kar Diya/ Tamaam Gunahon Ko Tinke Ki Maanind Baha Diya (The
tears of repentance purified me/ The sins were watered away like straws). But
remember a Hadees, “Tauba Jab Bhi Karo, Dil Se Karo, Faqat Zabaan Se Nahin”
(Whenever you repent, repent from the depth of heart and not just with your
tongue).
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A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in
comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed
articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.
URL:
https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/conscience-awake-alive-alert/d/129912
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