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THE PHILOSOPHY OF DUTY
deep-rooted habits of reaction-those acquired spontaneities, the cherished automatisms of one's profoundly rooted likes and dislikes-all must be cast aside; for these are not the Self but "superimpositions," "colorings," "besmearings" (añjana), of its intrinsic radiance and purity. That is why before entering upon the fourth āśrama, that of the wandering nonentity, the Hindu practices the psychological exercises of the third, that of the idyl of the forest. He must put off himself to come to the adamantine Self. And that is the work of yoga. Yoga, Self-discovery, and then the absolutely unconditional identification of oneself with the anonymous, ubiquitous, and imperishable ground of all existence, constitute the proper end of the second half of the cycle of the orthodox biography. This is the time for wiping off the actor's paint that one wore on the universal stage, the time for the recollection and release of the unaffected and uninvolved, yet all-sustaining and enacting, living Person who was always there.
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Satya
"BETTER is one's own dharma, though imperfectly performed, than the dharma of another well performed. Better is death in the performance of one's own dharma: the dharma of another is fraught with peril." There exists in India an ancient belief that the one who has enacted his own dharma without a single fault throughout the whole of his life can work magic by the simple act of calling that fact to witness. This is known as making an 7 Bhagavad Gità 3.35
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