We Are All at Different Points

From the hardened criminal to the enlightened sage, each doing what they understand to be right according to their current perspective.

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Take this reflection into the silence, and I'll see you next time.

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Transcript

In a National Geographic documentary filmed in Chihuahua, Mexico, where I grew up, a cartel hitman was asked if he thought killing was wrong. His response was striking: "No. It's my job. It pays well, and I have to feed my family. Besides, the people I kill are involved in this business." Where most would recoil at taking human life, this man saw it as justified, even righteous, through his particular lens of survival and duty.

That’s because each perspective flows from different levels of moral understanding, shaped by different circumstances. Right and wrong evolve with our consciousness.

"But surely there are universal rights and wrongs that never change!" One might argue. Yes, but this objection misunderstands the point. The Yogis do not say moral truths don't exist. They say that our ability to perceive and understand those truths depends on our level of development. It's similar to how a child gradually comes to understand mathematical truths that were always true but weren't yet visible to their developing mind.

What seems acceptable to someone at an early stage of development (like the hitman who sees murder as just another job) becomes clearly wrong at a higher stage of awareness.

“Each soul unfolds like a flower,” Yogi Ramacharaka explains. What feels true at one stage of growth may shift at another. Different cultures and individuals find different paths to truth. Yet within all beings, that divine radiance shines, waiting to break through.

"Each man must act according to the highest light they possess," he continues. "What would be sin for one might not be sin for another less developed." And so, as we grow, we gradually shed the layers obscuring our inner light. Actions that once seemed acceptable become unthinkable. Our moral vision expands.

So what to do?

Do the best you know, and tomorrow you will know better. This is the path of eternal unfoldment. Even that cartel hitman in Chihuahua, despite his current perspective that killing is "just a job," carries within him the potential for deeper understanding. Perhaps one day, as his consciousness evolves, he too will recognize the sanctity of human life.

After all, we are all at different points on the same path. From the hardened criminal to the enlightened sage, each doing what they understand to be right according to their current perspective.