Communication, Understanding & Acceptance failing in the absence of “_ _ _ t _ _ _”

Recognize the importance of virtues in our lives; it leads to better communication, understanding and acceptance between us and our fellow people. Virtues are important because they are the basic qualities necessary for our well-being and happiness.

Virtuous behaviour that shows high moral standards doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong needs to be cultivated to become more prevalent in our lives. We have built devices to count our daily foot steps to monitor fitness levels but care less to increase our count of virtuous behaviour. We need to realise the absence of virtues as an internal reality in oneself does not establish a pattern of virtuous behaviour to act externally in morally good ways. Virtue is universal and highly recognized by all cultures and tradition of the world. However, vices, immorality and indecency still exist in our society today. It is indeed a major issue to be addressed urgently.

Human virtues are also acquired through seeing them in the good example of others, to acquire them through education in their value and methods or from stories that inspire us to want such virtues help contribute to their growth within us. Recent generations gone and the one that is in, there is lack of desire and hardly the kind with patience who would teach how to inculcate a mind to achieve such ideals.

An immense hope is now in God’s grace, another way in which we grow in virtues. The Theological Virtues of faith, hope, and charity (love) are those virtues that relate directly to God. These are not acquired through human effort but, beginning with Baptism, they are infused within us as gifts from God.

God has endowed man with a faculty. This faculty is intellect, ‘buddhi’ and the type of intellect required is the Truth-faced intellect, ‘sadbuddhi’. As a person you can be very knowledgeable and intellectually “gifted” while also being intellectually hasty, lazy, dishonest, arrogant, servile, distracted, superficial, careless, or closed-minded.

If you recognise His Glorious Virtues, then you shall come to know God: thus virtue shall dwell in you and sin shall run away.

- SGGS436

Sat (truth), Daya (compassion), Santokh (contentment), Nimrata (humility) & Pyaar (love).

We must in our list of asks with God include his grace for Sadbuddhi, to walk the path of the divine.

Gurbani says

Let us form a partnership, and share our virtues; let us abandon our faults, and walk on the Path. Let us wear our virtues like silk clothes; let us decorate ourselves, and enter the arena. Let us speak of goodness, wherever we go and sit; let us skim off the Ambrosial Nectar, and drink it in. One who has a basket of fragrant virtues, should enjoy its fragrance.

- SGGS766