Suppose a social welfare organization is short of money and asks us to become a regular patron. Naturally, we will want some accountability. But if we find that they have no accounting system at all, we will be appalled. 

Strangely however, we aren’t similarly appalled by our own lack of accounting with regard to our valuable inner resource: our consciousness. When our consciousness is invested in useful endeavors, we can do worthwhile, even wonderful things. When our consciousness is dissipated in trivial things, we can’t do anything worthwhile. But often we aren’t even aware of where our consciousness is, leave alone how it gets dissipated. 

We do notice, nonetheless, that our consciousness isn’t supportive when we try to do something challenging. We find ourselves running out of patience and becoming irritable or snappy. If we don’t even notice such behavior, we are in big trouble indeed. Without knowing it, we may routinely nurture an unhealthy emotion such as annoyance and exhibit concomitant behavior such as irritability. Over time, our behavior may degenerate so much that people stop working with us and start avoiding us. Then we wonder what went wrong. 

If we wish to manage our anger, we need to note when we start feeling angry, when that anger comes out as harsh words, when it bursts out as physical aggression, what stimuli trigger it and what practices pacify it. For such inner accounting, daily introspection or journaling can be important tools. Using such tools, we need to also track our positive emotions and actions, otherwise tracking will become a gloomy exercise. 

Recommending inner accountability, the Gita urges us to elevate ourselves with ourselves and not degrade ourselves (06.05). When we keep an account of our consciousness, we can invest it constructively and reap the returns of outer contribution and inner satisfaction. 

Think it over:

  • Why do we need to keep an account of our consciousness?
  • Did you get a reality check about some behavior or emotion recently?
  • What emotion and action do you need to keep track of? 

***

06.05 One must deliver himself with the help of his mind, and not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well.

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