What Is Righteousness?

When one talks of living righteously does it mean that you need to go around correcting others to suit your definition of being righteous? Is it necessary to demean others for their shortcomings with your holier-than-thou attitude? Is it righteous on your part to gloat over others’ ordeals because you think they deserve it for the wrong that they do? Where does this sort of behaviour lead you to? All this judgment and criticism puts you no higher on the spiritual ladder than your erring brothers and sisters. Anything that lacks the energy of unconditional love and compassion is negative. When you judge others you automatically put yourself up to be judged by others as well. Meddling in the lives of people does not in any way make you righteous. Any kind of resistance or non-acceptance towards your fellowmen spells violence. Violence need not always be physical where you come to blows with one another. Violence in thoughts and emotions is even more harmful to another as well as to your self. You cannot hurt others without hurting yourself; this is the eternal Truth.

To think that you are superior to others just because you may be a step ahead of them spiritually or intellectually evokes pride and vanity, which are in itself the negative energies, and so in reality, you are nevertheless on the same rung or even lower than those whom you look upon with contempt. Righteousness is a way of life and not to treat it as some sort of a position that gives you the authority to oversee the behaviour of others around you.

Righteous living requires you to live with the full awareness of your own faults; it requires concentrated effort on bringing about healthful changes in your own being, and doing away with the old conditionings. The desire to walk the walk and to talk the talk of the Great Masters must relentlessly burn within your heart. Humility and geniality must be the order of the day. Live your life with an encompassing love for all mankind and sentient beings on Earth. Take responsibility for your hardships and difficulties, and complete each task with an undivided attention. Make use of your spiritual weapons – prayers, meditation and mantras – to promote the divinity within you, and not for reasons of vanity and selfishness.

Live as an extended arm of God rather than as a slave to the forces of materialism. To indulge your mind in anything that is not in keeping with the Principles of the Universe means to lower yourself on the spiritual ladder. Any kind of gossip, slander, expressions of scorn and contempt, anger, sadness, melancholy and the like are offensive to the spirit and to the environment as well. Therefore, the principles of righteousness must be put into practice instead of passing it up as some kind of ancient theory preached by the saints and seer, and reiterated by their followers while the masses remained unenthused to the words that fell on deaf ears. To live righteously means to live in tune with the cosmos, doing that which helps promote your spirituality, as well as being instrumental in raising the light in your fellowmen.