From the Editor’s Desk (Dec 2015)

This month’s edition of the Newsletter takes a look at the quality or virtue of sincerity. The word is defined as the absence of pretense, deceit or hypocrisy, according to the Oxford Online Dictionary. What then is pretense, deceit or hypocrisy? Pretense is defined as an attempt at making up something that is not the case, while deceit is the action of or practice of deception by concealing or misrepresenting truth and lastly, hypocrisy is the practice of claiming to have higher standards or more noble beliefs then is actually the case. Sincerity is the absence of all these practices in a person. This means quite a lot. A little contemplation on what sincerity means may throw one into a chasm of doubt. How many times in a day is one sincere? How often does one show something that is not as that which is the case? How often does one pretend to be what one is not, in our daily lives, in dealings with people and also ourselves? How often does one carry a superiority complex about oneself, as one being a notch higher than another in a certain way of being or practice? Sincerity calls for much. It demands certain preconditions. First one has to know oneself very well in order to know the intensity of sincerity in oneself. Then, to know oneself, one has to observe, and observe attentively, minutely and intensely. In order to observe in this way, one has to be silent from within, without being distracted by what happens outside or inside oneself. Being sincere appears to be a quality that cannot be gained in a few days. Acquiring it in itself appears a Sadhana. The Mother says that there is no progress without sincerity.  If sincerity means all these and if it is crucial for progress itself, then everyone interested in progress will have to take a serious look at sincerity in oneself and make it one’s business in life to cultivate sincerity and be it. How can this be done? In order to chart out an action plan for cultivating sincerity, one must know what exactly sincerity is (rather than only what it is not, as the definition above highlights). Here is one statement from The Mother about what is sincerity: “Sincerity means to lift all the movements of the being to the level of the highest consciousness and realization already attained.” If one were to rid oneself of insincerity, one should not have “any preference, any attraction, any dislike, any sympathy or antipathy, any attachment, any repulsion.” On the other hand, one must instead have “a total, integral vision of things, in which everything is in its place and one has the same attitude towards all things: the attitude of true vision.” Above all, one must decide and will that one wants sincerity, above all others. This is the work before one if sincerity is to become a part of the being and that too relentless work for every moment. Daunting it may sound, The Mother’s assurance is always there, for anyone who sincerely wants to change and embrace sincerity in his or her being: “Whenever there is sincerity, you find that the help, the guidance, the grace are always there to give you the answer and you are not mistaken for long.” May sincerity be! Read on for help.