Guilt

I would like to discuss one emotion that has kept me quite intrigued i.e. "guilt". We make a lot of decisions in our lives, and most of such decisions are driven by one or the other desire. At times, some of our decisions harm the interest of others and that makes us feel guilty. Apparently, that seems to be such a noble emotion that will eventually prevent us from doing others harm. However, most of the time, guilt does more harm than good.

It seems quite counterintuitive. Probably, we need to examine the genesis of this emotion to understand it from a proper perspective. We all have a strong sense of "I" arising due to ignorance. "I" is not aware of most parts of the functioning of our body and mind. Unless we use specific instruments to measure and examine, we do not know how our heart beats and at what speed it beats. It automatically adjusts its speed as per the demands of the situation without any conscious instructions. The digestion system digests the food and the excretory system excretes the waste without any conscious directions from this "I". The hormone glands secrete different types of hormones necessary for the growth of the body as well as to carry out so many other functions without this "I" ever knowing what is happening inside.

"I" hardly knows what goes inside the depth of the large ocean of the unconscious mind. Our senses keep observing so many things our entire lives that these experiences shape our unconscious mind in different ways. We are hardly aware of how these memories in the unconscious mind decide our life choices. At any point in time, if we examine our life choices, we will be surprised at many of our decisions. At the point of making the decision, something happens to us and we make the decision. Post decisions the "I" starts taking the credit or guilt for the decisions.

This "I" is like a dog, walking under a bullock cart carrying the load, perceiving to be carrying the load. If the load reaches the destination, it starts taking the credit and if there is any mishap, it starts feeling guilty. Both emotions of arrogance and guilt are driven by the wrong perception of being a doer and both are equally stupid. It needs to correct its perception of being a doer.

Does that mean that a person should not have any guilt and harm others? The answer is very simple. If a person drops the ignorance, it sees the reality as it is. It sees the artificiality of the divisions between the "I" and the "others". With that awareness, comes the understanding of the role of the "I" or the "Unit". "Unit" can not have any purpose other than acting as an agent of the "whole".

An aware employee always knows about the role assigned to him in the organization. If an employee always remains aware of his role, the interest of the organization will always be primary. Any aware organization will always take care of the interests of the employees. Thus, there is no conflict. Both take care of each other's interests and since all the employees are working to promote the interest of the organization, there is no conflict of interest among the employees. Even if there are some differences, they can be easily sorted out by discussions.

In such an organization, an employee may lose awareness temporarily and out of ignorance may harm the interest of the organization. Since the organization is equally aware, it will have built-in checks and balances to immediately warn the employee. That is how the Divine warns us in the form of many disasters and tragedies whenever the "unit" forgets its real nature of being a part of the "whole" and gets fixated on its desires and possessions. With these warnings, the unit will soon gain awareness of being part of the "whole" and recenter his life around the "whole". There is no question of guilt here because awareness brings "change" rather than "guilt".

The other possibility may be that an employee harms the interest of another employee due to ignorance or in other words one "unit" harms the interest of the other "unit". In this case, there may be two interesting scenarios. The first is that the "unit" or employee being harmed is aware of its true nature. In that case, the employee would soon realize where the other one is going wrong and will therefore tell the erring employee in clear terms for the course correction. Here again, there is no question of guilt. Awareness will bring "change" rather than "guilt".

The worst situation is when both employees are ignorant. In that case, since both are lost in ignorance, there is no one to guide the course correction. Since the "units" do not get active guidance on the course correction, they develop an emotion of "guilt". However, that's the beauty of the Divine. He is so concerned about each of us that He will intervene in one or the other form. However, His methods of intervention are divine and initially, they appear to be hurdles and difficulties. Soon, we realize how those interventions have taken us out of that ignorance.

Thus, "guilt" as an emotion has a very limited utility along the path of awareness. Probably, a fully aware "unit" will never have any guilt. Even if in a fit of ignorance, something goes wrong, the very next moment, it will be on the corrective path. "Guilt" has a lot of passivity due to fixation on the "I". It also has built-in resistance to act to change. That's why we need to replace "guilt" with "change". 

If we are constantly aware of being a "unit", we have an unshakable connection with the "whole". That connection will always bring change. "Guilt" is an indication of the weakness of our connection with the "whole" somewhere since it implies that the "I" is still in the doership mode. If it takes the "guilt" of one action, it will also take the "pride" of another action. In a state of constant connection with the "whole", the "unit" has no time to waste in "guilt" rather it is always ready to "change" as per the divine guidance with an understanding that all events in this life are part and parcel of its evolution.