According to me, children can be given a set of rules initially so they don’t move from the path of consciousness. But soon they have to be given the understanding of life and the need to operate from consciousness instead of conscience.
If you live with consciousness, you will automatically live a moral life. To start understanding the need to live with consciousness, just look into your morality.
Morality is only skin deep, whereas consciousness comes from the very being. Your consciousness tries to break through your conscience. Your consciousness continuously fights with your conscience. Conscience is societal. Consciousness is natural. Conscience is a poor substitute for consciousness.
People ask me, ‘Swamiji, what is this? You are pulling down the whole social structure. Then how can we all live morally?’ I tell them, ‘Be very clear, it is only for kids that you need a forced morality.
For them you need to say, ‘Keep quiet, I will give you candy.’ Of course, now-a-days kids reply, ‘I am happy. I don’t need your candy. Who cares for your candy!’ For a child you can say that you will give candy and restrict him.
You can impose morality on him based on fear or greed. But for you, it is time to grow up. You are not kids anymore. Just stand up with consciousness. When I say consciousness, I mean the intelligent energy of your being.
When something is told to you, if you take full responsibility of deciding whether it is right or wrong, you can avoid all guilt feelings. If you don’t take responsibility for your decision, you will feel discontented whether you do the action or not.
If you do as you are told, you will feel that you are being dominated, that you are not being assertive, that you are being exploited. If you don’t do as you are told, you start feeling guilty that maybe it was the right thing to do.
There is no need for this unnecessary dilemma. Just be simple. Respond intelligently. Take responsibility for doing whatever you are going to do. Then there is no question of guilt. If you are not going to do it, explain clearly to the person why you are not going to do it. When you explain, the other person may agree with you and may even be thankful to you for it.
Or he may have stronger and better reasons than you to justify what he is saying, then you will be thankful to him for raising your intelligence. In this way, you could use every opportunity, every moment in life to raise your intelligence, to raise your consciousness.