MEDITATION
A KARMA-YOGI ALSO HAS RAGA-DVESAS
A karma-yogi is not a person who has no raga-dvesas. He is someone who has raga-dvesas but gives them up, meaning that he does not go by them. Instead of going by ‘I must get this’ and ‘I must not get that,’ the karma-yogi goes by what is to be done. In other words, he gives up the desires for this and that and performs whatever action that is to be done according to dharma and adharma, not going by his or her own
raga-dvesas. In this way, one’s raga-dvesas are given up to a certain extent and those that remain are pursued and fulfilled according to dharma.
THE VALUE OF VALUES
Anything that anyone wants is very important to that person. Someone may say, ‘I am unhappy,’ and go after certain pleasures. Here, again, the value of these pleasures is not adequately understood. Their limitations are not known and, therefore, they are over-valued. At the same time, the universal values, also not being fully understood by the person, are under -valued; they are de-valued. This means that, while we have knowledge of values, we have no education with reference to them. The value of the values not being known, we do not have adequate knowledge of the values and this situation creates conflict.
Upon analysis of the value structure, we see that if the value of all the values is not known, the universal values naturally remain under -valued and the things which people have a value for, like money and power, have an exaggerated value. However, when such ‘values’ are clearly understood, they no longer have full value for you. Until then, they rule; power rules, money rules, name and fame rule, influence rules. They rule the roost, the roost of your heart!
