MAN AND CONSCIENCE

"Conscience is not a law imposed from outside; it is the whisper of the divine within us, the place where human and God meet."

There is something in man that sets him apart from the animal world, something that makes us more than a bundle of instincts, appetites, and reflexes. That something is conscience. Without it, we may still walk and talk, we may build empires and invent machines, but inwardly we are hollow. Without conscience, man becomes an empty shell, easily swayed by influence, corrupted by desire, and capable of the most terrible evils.

Conscience is the guardian of our humanity. It is what prevents us from betraying the truth we know in the quiet of our hearts. History is littered with examples of men and women who ignored this inner voice and chose instead the path of expedience, power, or self-interest. When conscience is silenced, cruelty flourishes, deception becomes normalized, and the dignity of life is trampled underfoot. We may call it tyranny, oppression, or evil—but at the root of it is the absence of conscience.

And yet, conscience is not a set of laws imposed from outside. It is not the voice of a punitive God thundering from the heavens with commandments and punishments. It is far more intimate than that. It is the whisper of the divine within us—the place where human and God meet, not as master and servant, but as essence recognizing essence. Conscience is the still small voice that calls us to integrity, to truth, to love.

When we betray our conscience, we fracture ourselves. Integrity is broken, and a split appears between what we know in our depths and what we do on the surface. That split is painful. It leaves us restless, anxious, and hungry for something we cannot name. We may try to cover over this emptiness with distractions, pleasures, or possessions. But the wound of dis-integration cannot be healed that way. Only by returning to the voice of conscience—by aligning with the truth inside us—do we regain wholeness.

This is why conscience can be said to be our true connection to God. Not to a God of dogma, nor to the image of a wrathful deity handing out rewards and punishments, but to the living reality of god-ness itself. Conscience is that spark of divinity in man which refuses to be corrupted, even when everything else around us collapses. It is the bridge between our fleeting human lives and the eternal presence that sustains them.

To follow conscience is rarely easy. It may mean saying no when everyone else is saying yes. It may mean losing approval, success, or comfort. It may bring us into conflict with family, society, or even with our own habits and desires. But conscience never misleads. To ignore it may bring short-term gain, but at the cost of our peace. To follow it may bring difficulty, but it grants something more precious than all worldly approval: the quiet assurance that we have not betrayed our own soul.

In a world where so many forces clamor for our attention, where propaganda and advertising compete to bend our desires, the role of conscience becomes ever more urgent. Without it, we are puppets, jerked around by whichever string is pulled most strongly. With it, we stand rooted, not rigid but grounded, able to withstand the storms of influence without being uprooted. Conscience is not infallible—it requires discernment, humility, and often a willingness to admit when we have strayed. But it is the one inner compass that, if heeded, always points us back to the direction of truth.

To live without conscience is to live without center, tossed about on the waves of fear, greed, and confusion. To live with conscience is to live with dignity, to live with integrity, to live in relationship with the eternal. Our greatness as human beings is not measured by wealth, power, or fame. It is measured by the faithfulness with which we listen to and act upon that sacred inner voice.

And so the question is not whether God exists somewhere “out there.” The question is whether we are willing to honor the spark of God that already lives in us. That spark is conscience. To cultivate it, to listen to it, and to allow it to shape our choices—this is what it means to be truly human.

In the end, when all the titles and possessions fade, when the body weakens and the world recedes, conscience will remain. It will be the final mirror in which we see ourselves. Did we live true to the truth within us? Did we honor the voice that called us to love, to honesty, to compassion, to courage? This is the measure of a life well lived. Everything else is temporary.

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Someone asked me how I changed

I replied, I saw judgement of myself and the world was the cause of my suffering and based on pain and conditioning, so I decided to stop.

And then I saw how unforgiving I can be when I sense failure, and that too was the cause of suffering, so I decided to forgive myself when I judged.

Between these two, with much sincerity and conviction, I changed.

_______________________

The end of defensiveness
Is the beginning of intimacy
And heralds the arrival of true love.

_______________________

There is a voice inside you
That speaks of love and beauty
It remembers the divine garden
And the essence of your true nature
To hear it you must become
Very quiet and still.

______________________

When You.

When you embrace your own suffering,
And the suffering of humanity,
A tenderness awakens
That no shield can protect against.

When you turn towards the darkness
In search of light,
You discover a flame
That was never extinguished.

When you gaze at the stars
From deep inside the wound,
You behold the vastness of being,
And know yourself as love.

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In humiliation  
The ego falls  
From its pedestal  
Into the arms of grace.

The bittersweet taste of humility  
Few dare to sample,  
Yet in many ways  
It is the only door  
To the heart’s freedom.

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In our vulnerability, in our tender openness,  
The light of our humanity shines.  
We see that nothing is separate from God,  
And the light is always pouring through—  
Even in the darkest hour.

Thanks for reading.