The Pearl of Wisdom - Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18

The duties of man

Disciple: Swami, O great guru, what are the duties of man in this world ? How are we to live, grow and develop? How are we to find the true guru and submit to him? Swami, tell this to me fully.

Guru: O son, listen. Allah created all lives and among them He created man, the highest form of being. To be such a man :

1 .Firstly, you must have determination and unshakeable faith in Allah.

2. Secondly, you must swear by God to be close to Him, breath to breath, speech to speech and thus worship Him.

3. Thirdly, you must offer charity in kind and word. One- fourth of your income should be given as charity.

4. Fourthly, not only for the sake of God Himself, but also for the benefit of your soul, you must be full of pity and compassion for others and observe the Fast. The fourth duty is the Fast. This must be done.

5. Fifthly, you must visit the temple which is ten thousand or fifteen thousand miles away in places like Mecca and Medina and perform the Hajj. So tell the ancient great men and the Rasools ( Messengers of Allah). This fifth duty should be performed by everybody in this world. This is being done now.

It is said that these are the important duties of man. When man was created originally in an earthen pot into which was filled the pure life and sent down to the earth-world, God said:

“ O man you are going to the earth-world. Go there and worship Me with Faith and Certitude. Those who visit the City of Mamakaram ( City of Possessiveness ) and the illusionary realms of Maya, usually change their human qualities. Therefore, you must escape from this change. You must believe in the five letters, the Panchadcharam ( the five magical letters ) or the five Sharths ( the five pillars). You must recite the five Kalimahs ( assertions of belief ) with determination and faith. So it is said. In other words, you must have determination of heart and mind and believe that God is everything and is everywhere. There are several meanings to these words.

Secondly, you must worship the Lord and pray to Him. He exists now, existed then and will always exist. One person will say, “Fear Him” and another will say, “ Go to the temple and worship Him.” There are many meanings for the second letter of Panchdcharam too.

Thirdly, one person will say you must perform charity, give gifts, do good deeds , offer Thivasam ( alms in memory of the dead ) and perform many such similar acts. Another will say, “ Give Sadhaqua “ ( Charity in kind ), feed the poor, give away sarees, build mosques, build houses, make recitals in memory of the dead and recite the Fatiha ( the Opening verse in the Holy Quran ). More such words will be said, “ This is acceptable to God. Do not neglect this.” There are many meanings to all these.

Fourthly, observe the Fast and see to the needs of the poor. On the twenty-seventh day of the Fast give away money, clothes and many other things. One person will say that Fasting is acceptable to God. Others will say you must observe Viratham ( Fasting ), offer sacrifice, give Thivasam ( alms in memory of the dead ) and perform Anthiraddi

( funeral rites ), offer Kandashasti ( invocation to Lord Skanda ), observeAmavasa, ( the New Moon on the first day of the Lunar month ), keep awake on Sivarathri ( night of Supplication to Lord Siva ) and several similar observances.

They will say, “ These are the duties of man. Believe in God. Perform your duties regularly. Go to the temple and worship. Perform temple duties. They offer similar such advices. Some others will say, “ Come to the temple. This is an important day “: “ Do not neglect these five duties. Come to the mosque. Do your prayers. If you do not come to the mosque you will enter hell. Fear God. Live as human or you will be sent to Hell ” and utter many such other words.

But my son, in a world of this fashion, only if men living as humans perform their duties properly, will they be known as men. Man’s belief in God’s creation, his traits, his nature and his worship are all considered as part of man’s duty. But it is not so. First and foremost, he must be born a human. This is very, very rare.

God the Rare and the Great Power created man. Having created man, God ordained that He be believed and worshipped. Man’s duty from his birth into this world till he dies, is to believe in God with certitude and determination. He should accept the truth of it and keep the truth within him.

God has no race, no religion, no differences, no relations, no people, no birth and no end. He has no decay. He has no comparison. Be determined in these words. Such a Lord

should be worshipped by man born as human, through his conduct. This is the normal way of worship. He should worship Him in his breath, in his speech and stand every minute in this state. Charity, compassion, generosity, justice, truth, patience, tolerance, tranquillity, duty and all other aspects of calm behaviour should be the ordinary, natural behaviour of man. Therefore, this is an important part of the five duties of man. Those who understand wisdom and realise the truth will appreciate the importance of the five duties. Those with no such understanding will laugh at it. What is this birth ? But son, among these duties mentioned, what is the work a human performs ?

What is the normal duty of man ? What is the quality of the natural behaviour of those born as men who live in the City of Mamakaramayajaalam ( City of Magical Possessiveness ) in the country of self-destruction ? Are those the five duties made reference to, by these people ? Apparently, the people in the country of self-destruction do not realise that there are several other duties too in the ordinary natural behaviour of man. If you scrutinise these statements you will realise that the above mentioned five duties are the more important duties. There is Param ( The Ultimate One ) only in these five.

There are several other modes of behaviour in man. They say, “We will follow the good way of life “ but forget and place the five important words in the front room and perform sinful evil deeds of the devil like getting intoxicated, indulging in sex, committing murder and theft, uttering falsehood, charging interest, being jealous, being arrogant, speaking words that are different from those in the heart, ruining virtuous men, destroying chaste women, torturing children, destroying friends, killing those who trust them, abusing the sages, committing other evil deeds and turning themselves into devils, the Asuras ( non-humans ).

If these five duties are important to them, what is the meaning of this birth ? What are the ordinary duties of natural behaviour ? It is this that troubles the Lord who rules.

God says:

“ I created man. Didn’t I ? When there are innumerable duties for man in his speech, in his breath, in his conduct, when he sits, when he runs, and when he lies on bed, did I not say that man should dispel his evil qualities and worship Me truthfully, from within his heart ? But man, no sooner than he goes to the country of self-destruction says things to suit his own convenience.”

These thoughts have presented themselves to God. There are other matters also son. Knowing the conduct of such people you must be wary of them. Conduct yourself as human as ordained by God. There are yet more natural duties for man. The five duties mentioned are mostly man’s natural behaviour. A human comes to know many things.

Body, property, life, fly, ant and similar life numbering 84,00,000 ( eight million four hundred thousand ) mountains, hills, oceans, earth, gold ,sky, arsh, kursh, kalam, hell, heaven, 7x 4 ( fourteen ) universes and all the things in the Three Universes belong to Him. Leaving aside two of the five, they say that there are three main duties, unaware of the place of the others. My son, man himself does not possess these three. The Almighty Allah, The Unique, The Rare is The Only One. Everything belongs to Him. All are His.