Thinking long and hard about the purpose of life that can
apply as a minimum standard for all of us regardless of our age, gender, social
status, location and religious affiliations, I stumbled upon this answer. To live
and die with a clear conscience – another way of looking at it is by answering
a simple question – do we approve of our own actions?
I feel that if we ask this question to ourselves, we will
get an unambiguous answer every time. After all this is a closed ended question.
The moment we start justifying or defending our actions to ourselves, we can
understand that there is a conflict – the worst kind there is – internal conflict.
This wonderful thing called conscience is a true gift, a singularity we can’t
escape from however much we try. We can ignore the pangs of conscience and keep
doing things but this conflict will eventually make us despondent. There is
incredible friction whenever we go against our conscience which tears us up
from the inside over the long term. It might take years but a breakdown is unavoidable.
Every time life throws us a curveball, it is not only about
how we respond but it’s vital to qualify our response beforehand. It cannot
disrupt our inner harmony. We cannot sacrifice harmony for growth or comfort or
even for an extension of life – who wants to lead a disharmonious life on an extended
term. It is often better to silently suffer and wait for a better tomorrow than
respond with action that grates our conscience.
These thoughts are derivative at best and this blogger did
not write this for any credit for original thinking. But the objective is to
push every parent to have a conversation with their children about this
priceless gift – conscience.
