Age New Spirituality - Inspirational Stories ( Part 52 )

Every act of charity, every thought of sympathy, every action of help, every good deed, is taking so much of self- importance away from our little selves and making us think of ourselves as the lowest and the least, and, therefore, it is all good. Here we find that Jnana, Bhakti, and Karma -- all come to one point. The highest ideal is eternal and entire self- abnegation, where there is no "I", but all is "Thou"; and whether he is conscious or unconscious of it, Karma - yoga leads man to that end. A religious preacher may become horrified at the idea of an Impersonal God;he may insist on a Personal God and wish to keep up his own identity and individuality, whatever he may mean by that. But his ideas of ethics,if they are really good, cannot but be based on the highest self- abnegation. It is the basis of all morality; you may extend it to men,or animals,or angels, it is the one basic idea, the one fundamental principle running through all ethical systems.

You will find various classes of men in this world. First,there are the God - men, whose self - abnegation is complete, and who do only good to others even at the sacrifice of their own lives. These are the highest of men. If there are a hundred of such in any country, that country need never despair. But they are unfortunately too few. Then there are the good men who do good to others so long as it does not injure themselves. And there is a third class who, to do good to themselves, injure others. It is said by a Sanskrit poet that there is a fourth unnamable class of people who injure others merely for injury's sake. Just as there are at one pole of existence the highest good men, who do good for the sake of doing good, so, at the other pole,there are others who injure others just for the sake of the injury. They do not gain anything thereby, but it is their nature to do evil.

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