Conscience–A Guide to Tazkiya

Man is endowed with a natural faculty called the conscience, which serves as a divine teacher and a guide to tazkiya. Conscience guides one on all occasions, albeit wordlessly—do this, don’t do that, this behaviour is in accordance with tazkiya and that behaviour is against tazkiya, this behaviour will help in developing a purified personality and that behaviour will defile your personality.

But experience shows that the majority of the people do not allow their conscience to act as a guide to tazkiya. What is the reason for this? The reason is that everyone is given another faculty, which is the opposite of conscience, and that is the ego. A person often comes under the influence of the self, or Satan. He does not let the conscience work for him. The voice of the conscience can be heard on all occasions, but the ego suppresses that voice and renders it ineffective.

It is essential for a seeker of tazkiya to be abreast of this reality, so that he awakens his power of thinking, and nullifies his ego on all occasions. The moment one is able to overcome one’s ego, one’s conscience will be able to play its natural role and one will be able to traverse the path of tazkiya without any deviation. The exercise of nullifying the ego or reducing it to zero has a decisive role to play. But no one can perform this task for another. One has to do it oneself; the moment one’s ego is awakened, one should become alert and by exercising one’s will power set one’s ego at naught.