[In this section we seek to answer frequently asked questions, at U.L.T. meetings or during private conversations and discussions with people who seek the answers in the light of Theosophy. Answers given in this section are by no means final. Only a line of thought is being offered by applying general principles of Theosophy.]

Question: What is conscience? We are advised to listen to or consult the "voice of conscience," but warned, at the same time, that it may not always be reliable. This is confusing. Please explain.

Answer: In "Forum" Answers Mr. Judge throws some light on questions pertaining to conscience. "Conscience seems to be a faculty which may be stilled or made active. In my opinion its source is in the Higher Self, and as it comes down through plane after plane it loses its force or retains power according to the life and education of the being on earth." Its expression could be partially or totally blocked depending upon the ideas, habits of thought and ideologies followed by a person. A savage who kills, or the religionist who indulges in religious persecution for the sake of God and Christ, are both acting according to what they call their conscience, but limited and tainted by education or lack of it, and right or wrong beliefs. "In those cases where men are doing wrong according to what they call their conscience, it must be true that they have so warped their intuition as not to understand the voice of conscience."

"Voice of conscience" is generally understood to guide in terms of negatives such as "do not go there," "do not do this," rather than pointing to a clear-cut course to be followed. The more one pays attention to and acts in accordance with the conscience, the louder it speaks. Conversely, every time we turn a deaf ear to its voice, we still that voice which finally stops warning.

True conscience, called the Voice of Antahkarna or the "internal organ" is the bridge between our external consciousness and the action of the "higher regions of the Mind." It is through this channel or organ, present in every one of us, that we receive an influence, a hint, a faint whisper, a voice—more or less clear, depending on the regularity with which we faithfully consult and respond to the higher part of our Being.

Like any human organ, the inner voice grows in strength or atrophies according to the proper use or disuse of the same. At first, it is just a faint voice of warning, checking our impulses, but gets clearer as we pay heed to it. The lower must look up to the higher for guidance. If the channel—Antahkarna—is not allowed to get choked with weeds of personal concerns, fancy, useless accumulations, then the action of the Higher becomes more marked or pressing and may even goad us onward along the path, at times even against personal inclinations and worldly noises.

"This divine conscience acts in all struggles for betterment, but clouded more or less in each by reason of education and habit of thought....If we fix for ourselves the rule that we will try to do the very best we can for others, we will generally be led aright. If we rely on the higher self and aspire to be guided by it, we will be led to the right even if the road goes through pain, for sorrow and pain are necessary for the purification of the soul," writes Mr. Judge.

Apart from the voice of our higher nature, conscience is also built up of the bittersweet "lessons" of life, extricated from our experiences. The memory of these lessons becomes part of our nature and warns us against repeating the former mistakes and follies, if we respond to this "warning faculty" in us.

Question: Is it necessary for an individual to pass through all possible experiences—good and evil, pleasant and unpleasant—for acquiring wisdom or for the purpose of evolution?

Answer: Light on the Path says, "And before you can attain knowledge you must have passed through all places, foul and clean alike." This seems to suggest that it is necessary for an individual to pass through all kinds of good as well as bad experiences. But can one learn for the experiences of another? An event becomes an experience when we learn the necessary lesson and change inwardly. For some people nothing is an experience till it happens to them. As Mr. Judge says, we have formed grooves in our minds by thinking along the same old lines, and we need to fill up these grooves by learning to look into the lives of other people around us and profit from their experiences, as then we will have in one life the advantage of having lived several lives.

This learning from experiences of other people calls for great imagination and sympathy. While travelling in a railway compartment, many things happen around us. For those who are attentive, this journey may prove to be an experience, whereas someone who is engrossed only in what he would do on getting down, this journey means nothing. The same is also true of life's journey.

Light on the Path says that in order to reach perfection one must learn that light and darkness, good and evil are the world's eternal ways. A person who is pure and innocent like a child, because he has never faced temptation and evil, will find that he is not able to handle evil when he encounters it. The first reaction to encountering evil is a shock. Whereas spiritual perfection implies being able to handle evil oneself and also be able to help others overcome it when they are faced with it. When Buddha met Angulimala, the highway robber, he was not shaken and was able to deal with him, as he knew of worse kinds of evil, whereas Angulimala was aware of only one aspect of it. Knowledge is maturity or total understanding that includes good as well as evil.

If we have remained over-protected, then even at a very high level we could have problems in dealing with and conquering evil. Sommerset Maugham's story, "Rain," is about a missionary who undertakes to reform a prostitute, but in the process is hopelessly attracted towards her and succumbs to her charm.

Through the Gates of Gold says that it takes a very exceptional nature to touch the very depths of evil and yet come up triumphant. Most of us lead a very secure life and learn slowly through our experiences. But there are a few with a strong will power, who can touch the depths of sin and then come out of it, like a good swimmer touching the bottom of the swimming pool, and then rising to the surface.

It is possible to learn through "imaginative sympathy," without going through the experience ourselves. It is the learning and the change produced in the person as a result of that event that is important. That event can happen in our life or someone else's life. In fact the experience need not necessarily be an event in someone's life; it can be a painting or music or book or any other medium. Some people are more responsive to a poem or to a painting. They may acquire experience through that particular medium. When we genuinely sympathize with the person who suffers the loss of a loved one, or experiences sickness or financial loss, we live that experience with him/her. We know where the shoe pinches.

It is true that each one has to go through what are called the basic type of experiences. Some of the major ones are: (1) experience of poverty, (2) experience of loneliness, (3) experience of parenthood—which teaches even a most self-centred person to do something for someone else, or self-transcendence.

In a sense, the nine rasas mentioned in Sanskrit literature—such as Shringar rasa pertaining to love, Veer rasa pertaining to courage, etc.—represent the basic types of experiences through which each one must pass. Our reading and responding to Kalida's play "Shakuntala" or Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" is, in a way, experiencing Shringar rasa—the agonies and ecstasies of love.

But more or less, for each of us, the imaginative sympathy and experience in our own life overlap—both are the means through which we learn. We are required to go through the experience again and again, till we have learnt the necessary lesson. The more we live up to Master's suggestion: "What hurts one ought to hurt the other—that which rejoices A must fill with pleasure B," the greater is our chance to learn from other people's experiences.

It is a good thing, before you suffer, to have learnt how great a blessing is tranquillity.

—Apollonius of Tyana