The writer talks about working on your will power to strengthen your conscience

Leo Tolstoy back in 1887 held that the only power capable of resisting the evil associated with materialism and the drive for social power of religious institutions, was the capacity of humans to reach an individual spiritual truth through reason and conscience.

What is this conscience?

It is a law that man often does not lay upon himself, but which he has a secret obligation to obey. It is an unexplained obligation to do the right thing, to spread love and harmony. You may argue that it is the pressure laid upon us by the community in which we live which imposes some unspoken laws upon us which are meant to be followed. Rarely can we disregard community, as there are plenty of laws which inhibit us from doing certain acts and we are all aware of what will happen if we do them. Even after knowing this if we commit certain acts, then we are knowingly dragging ourselves down into the muck.

Seema Saxena

Sooner or later, this gives rise to guilt and kills our peace of mind, besides causing agitation and stress. These strict moral ideals and lessons are subtly acquired by us and are meant to be obeyed. They are the ingredients of our conscience.

The Upanishads, Brahma Sutras and the Bhagwad Gita says conscience is the label given to our discriminatory knowledge about good and evil that the soul acquires from the completion of certain acts and consequent accumulation of karma over many lifetimes.

The inner voice, the antaratma is always questioning us and we have to give it answers. The mind builds a false wall of pretensions to free us of guilt. But our conscience has already warned us and that wall will crumble soon. And we know that.

Therefore, make listening to your conscience, a regular habit. It is nothing but consciousness giving acceptance to our existence. For this, we need inner obedience. 

It also requires faith in ourselves and a firm belief that what we are practising is beneficial to us. Therefore, we need to develop it by perseverance, inner obedience and will power. 

The will power comes from the cosmic source within us. It is an unexplained power which makes us sometimes do the impossible.

Our will power too has to be made stronger by believing that things are in our hands and that we can do it. Simple exercises which build our faith in our will power are enough to make it strong. For starters, we can instruct ourselves to get up early in the morning. When we adhere to this rule, we can see the results, ourselves. This brings a change in our perspective.

This changes us and makes us determined to follow our ideals. This constant practice of this simple exercise infuses us with confidence and give us the courage to make bigger changes.

Start with the little changes in life, one step at a time. Be determined by your will power to follow the rules of inner obedience and bring forth optimism into your life. Feel the positive effect on your own life. No confirmation is required for this law. You will know when you practice it and notice the changes within yourself.

Seema Saxena is a teacher with spiritual insight.