Volume
Vol. 8, The Privilege of Being Human
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31. Moral Culture
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Morality with God
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Vol. 8, The Privilege of Being Human
31. Moral Culture
Morality with God
The morals of humanity have three aspects: morality with regard to God, morality regarding friends, and morality with regard to those whom we do not like and to enemies.
Morality with regard to God has three parts.
The first is to idealize, to see all the good attributes in God, all the beautiful qualities, all His mercy and kindness. You may ask, "Why should we not also see the bad attributes in God. Why should we not say that God is cruel?" For instance, a child may be ill and the mother may say, "I pray God to make my child well." Then, if the child is not better, the mother may say, "God is unjust, God has no justice. This little child, what has it done that it should suffer so much?." In reality the child is not our property; we have no right to it. It belongs to the Spirit.
The moral is: if you are sorry - not to complain of God; if you are sick - not to blame God; if you are unfortunate - not to say that it is God's fault. This is called adab.
The second part is praise. Wherever we see something beautiful - to give the credit to God. Wherever we see some kindness - to say that it is the kindness of God. When we perform some act of mercy - to give the credit to God.
The third part is thanks. God does not need man's worship or man's thanks. Nothing can be given to Him by man's worship, nor can anything be taken from Him. If one goes to King George's Palace and says, "I wish to thank the king", the sentry will say, "Thank him at home. You cannot thank the king here." Man's worship, man's praise are needed for man himself in order to produce in him the attributes of humanity.
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