Bad to the bone

“Good girls go to Heaven but bad girls go everywhere”.

In our recent history, immorality has not only become normalized, but it is also glorified and worn like a shiny badge. It may become an identity (“bad-ass”, “well ‘ard”) or simply a disillusioned necessity (“nice guys finish last”,“you gotta do what you gotta do”).

Either way, the conception of piety or “doing the right thing” has become most unfashionable. For the rebels there is something so innately irritating about the “goody two shoes”.

So where does the deep-seated aversion to “goodness” come from?

The Vedic texts explain that as souls, the state of our original consciousness is “good” and loving towards everyone. But in this world we develop conditioning; our own unique trifle of habits, beliefs and qualities creating a prism through which we filter events and thus dictates our mind, intelligence and actions.

These coverings over our natural purity accumulate over many lifetimes and,whether or not you accept reincarnation, we can all observe the influences of events and experiences over our perception even just in this lifetime.

The root of this contamination is in the energy known as lust, as explained in Bhagavad-Gita:

As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, or as the embryo is covered by the womb, the living entity is similarly covered by different degrees of this lust.

Thus the wise living entity's pure consciousness becomes covered by his eternal enemy in the form of lust, which is never satisfied and which burns like fire. (3.38-39)

Lust is used broadly here and simply refers to a perverted form of love. Lust is selfish versus love, which is selfless. It fuels our selfish desires to enjoy and exploit this world and the people in it.

It is described as an “enemy” because it drives us to act selfishly in trying tosatisfy these never-ending desires, thus creating “knots in the heart”.

Knots may be useful in holding together, in this case, a false sense of self asa powerful, autonomous person. But many knots tied together are also uncomfortable and restrictive, not to mention very hard to undo!

In this entangled state we see people as threats or inconveniences, and thus we experience impatience and enmity. Our hearts become too hard to feel the sweet softness of our shared needs, experiences and spiritual identity.

It is described further on in the yogic texts that that the only way to cut through these knots of karma is with the “sword of knowledge”. With knowledge we can see our present state of conditioning for what it really is, and with application of spiritual technology we can begin to severe the ties these restrictive ropes hold over us.

Shrugging off these shackles, love can flow freely through our hearts. This heart-melting experience is what we all seek for in all our warped attempts for happiness and peace in this world.

The pure soul is described as sat-cid-ananda, “full of eternality, knowledge and bliss”. If we suspend our negative conceptions of “goodness” as being a blind follower or a boring drone, we can experience that true purity is full of variety, expression and intelligence – and the freedom to truly love.

 

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