Rehit Maryada
In one of my exchanges while on duty, I encountered a very powerful smuggler. By chance, we met in a situation face to face. I said to him, “I represent the government. I will give you a chance to fire at me first.” We were within range of each other. We were face to face. He was armed. I was armed.
I said. “I won’t attack.”
He said, “It is your responsibility to arrest me dead or alive.”
I said, “That’s true. But it is also my responsibility to get what I can get. I am a revenue officer. My job is to stop smuggling and to collect money. So I will stick by my oath. My job is not to get you and shoot you. So you attack me first. Then in self-defensive, I will kill you. There’s no doubt about it.”
He said, “I am not going to attack you.”
I said, “I am not going to attack you.”
He said, “Why won’t you attack me?”
I said, “I am an intelligent, wise, and experienced officer. I am surrounded by your men so attacking you is useless. Nobody will know the story. But if you attack me, your men are hero worshippers. If I get you, then they will honor me. “
He said, “I don’t understand.”
I said, “The rule. I will abide by the rule. I will abide by my oath.”
He said, “How can we disengage ourselves?”
I said, “You go back thirty steps. I will go back thirty steps. If you decide to do it, then you turn around and you leave with your men. I turn around and join my men.”
And we did it.
You are bound by a certain rule of action. Are you conscious or not conscious of whether you can demand and ask yourself to discipline yourself? It is up to you. It doesn’t matter what the time is, what the temptation is, or what the circumstances are. That is your personal honor. Everything which is sacred is secret because it is between you and within your consciousness. Therefore, it becomes Rehit Maryada.
Your elementary personality, what you are to yourself, is not known to you. Your working personality has a code of conduct, which you have to obey. Even though you don’t like it. And fantasy is a fantasy which you won’t even tell yourself.
Now religion is either a reality or a ritual. But the fact is, religion is a reality. That reality does not have a personality but it does have a code of conduct. The code of conduct will give you the personality, though it will not be your personality. That is why there is a code of conduct.
For a Sikh, there is one code of conduct. He has to be identifiable by himself. He has to stand out and identify himself that he is a Sikh. Secondly, he has to rise in the Ambrosial hours and clean his subconscious so he can face his day.
And there is a very powerful thing. He has to share with people. Sharing with people is only possible if he has something to share. If he is hungry, poor, absolutely useless, mentally corrupt, does not know anything, and is just a lemon – what can he share?
He has to be prosperous. He has to be rich. He has to be energetic. He has to give. And he has to give to those whom nobody gives anything. He has to be compassionate where nothing is required. He has to come out when nothing else can come out. A Sikh is a Lord of Impossibility. He claims calamity like we claim dessert after a good meal.
A Sikh lives to challenge calamity. That is our food. You can always claim calamity and challenge it if you have reality on your side. And your reality is only one thing: that you are you. In the beginning, in the middle and in the end.