Looking at the second method; though your conscious mind may not gain sufficient strength in general to get rid of some negative habits; an exception may occur in case of an occasional habit due to various reasons.
It has already been explained earlier that apart from the strengths of your minds; their willingness to fight till the end or not in specific cases can change the results. Hence even if your conscious mind has the strength to produce effort equal to 40 units of energy at a time; and it is in general not able to delete habits which need 50 units of energy; an exception may happen in a particular case. In such case, you may be able to get rid of a particular habit, even if you’re generally not able to do so.
For example, you love your girlfriend a lot and she hates a particular habit of yours. Though you were not able to get rid of such habit before you fell in love with her, you may be able to do so now. This is because your conscious mind engages in an all-out effort to get rid of it, in order to not offend your girlfriend again and again. However, this is an exception and it is not a rule.
Therefore, increasing the strength of your conscious mind through spiritual growth is the permanent solution for this problem as well as for other problems like this. It should be noted that your conscious mind can gain strength through your ego also; but this practice should be avoided. Though your ego may help you get rid of some habits as it gains strength and it strengthens your conscious mind also; you can never depend on your ego as it won’t hesitate in abusing your conscious mind; whenever it finds fit.
It means though your ego can get a number of jobs done for you; including giving strength to your conscious mind; the costs may be high or very high. It should be noted that when it comes to have a strong conscious mind on long term basis; only your ego or conscience can do this job for you. It means that your conscious mind can gain strength either through your ego or through your conscience. More is your ego or conscience in quantum; stronger is likely to be your conscious mind. This is why the conscious mind of a devil can be almost as strong as that of a god; where the former is fueled by ego and the latter is fueled by conscience.
However, ego is destructive and its tendency to destroy the entities it is using becomes stronger as it gains more strength. It means that stronger your conscious mind becomes due to ego; more are the chances of your destruction at any time. Conscience on the other hand; nourishes the entities it works with; and that is why it’ll never collapse after reaching the top. It means that though both ego and conscience may take you to the top; ego will always make you fall from the top due to its destructive nature whereas conscience will always make sure that you never fall once you reach the top.
This is why you can become a devil; thousands of times during the journey of your soul; but you can become a saint; only once. As you become a devil; your ego is at the top and hence you fall down. You may again try to reach the top, you may reach it and you may fall again. This may keep happening hundreds of times; as ego is simply unable to stay at the top forever; and it has to fall to the bottom; sooner than later.
On the other hand, once your conscience makes you reach the top; which means you become a saint; there’s no way you can fall down and hence your journey ends. This is why you should work towards growing more conscience and you should try your best to reduce ego as much as you can. As your conscience grows; your conscious mind not only becomes stronger but it becomes wiser also, since it is being supervised by conscience. As your conscience gains more and more strength and as your conscious mind also becomes stronger through your conscience; all your negative habits start leaving you and good virtues start coming to you.
Another problem with growing more ego is that it may not modify the negative habits in the way they should be and it may do so in a corrupt way, since corruption is its signature. When it comes to conscience; it is worried about a negative habit that you have and it doesn’t care about anything else. It means your conscience is focused on making you a better person from inside and it wants nothing else.
However when it comes to ego; it is not interested in making you a good person though it may be interested in making you look like a good person. It means your ego will let you be a bad person; as long as your image is good. An exception may happen in cases where your ego has got attached to your bad image; in which case it may promote you to be a bad person even on public front. For example; the ego of a notorious criminal may get attached to his negative image and it may gain satisfaction when people consider him a big criminal or a bad person.
This is why ego is the most difficult to handle entity in your entire existence; as it can get attached to anything; whether positive or negative. It can make a devil feel proud that people fear him as a devil and it can make a spiritually advanced person feel proud that so many people respect him due to his high spiritual growth. The devil is sure to fall and if the spiritual person is lured by his ego which may not be high though; he’ll also fall since he simply can’t reach the top as long as he listens to his ego.
Being a good person from inside is what your conscience wants and having a profitable public image is what your ego believes in. It should be noted that if you’re a really good person deep down; you don’t need to care about your public image since your virtues will speak for you. The need to build a public image appears only when you know deep down that you’re not so good in reality. We’ve already discussed this topic earlier.
Going back to the habit of getting animals killed for meat; most people may have subconscious guilt related to this habit; provided they have this habit. This is because so much information has gone to our subconscious minds; related to the negative nature of this act that we all may believe deep down; that doing so is bad. If you’re a non-vegetarian and you want to check whether or not you’re actually fine with this habit; which means you have peace or subconscious guilt related to this habit; here is what you should do.
For the next ten times or so; buy a live chicken and kill it yourself before eating it. If you’re able to continue this practice without problems; it means you’re fine with it. If however, you find it difficult to kill a live chicken again and again though you may do so with difficulty for a couple of times; it simply means one thing. It is the fact that deep down you believe that killing animals for meat is bad but you consciously feel it is not.
If on the other hand, your subconscious mind also believes that killing animals for meat is not bad; you won’t hesitate or you won’t feel bad; while killing the chickens. This is because your conscious and subconscious mind believe in the same thing and hence you’ll be at peace while killing the chickens.
The reason you won’t be able to do so in first case is because you’ll face conscious guilt in this case; instead of facing subconscious guilt. Since conscious guilt is much more difficult to handle; you may not be able to do so and you may even end up quitting non-vegetarian food. This is because so far; you’ve convinced yourself consciously that killing animals for meat is not bad when you subconsciously believe it is. However, you can’t fool yourself now since you’re killing them right before your eyes. This is why you may not do it if you believe deep down that killing animals for meat is bad whereas you may do it easily if you believe deep down that killing animals for meat is not bad.
For instance, you consciously and subconsciously believe that cutting a potato or an onion for food is not bad; and hence you may do it peacefully. The same will happen in case of all such things which you want to eat and you feel that cutting them is not bad. Why is it so that when it comes to cut a live chicken; you’re not able to do so though you believe killing animals for meat is not bad?
This is because you’re not comfortable with this fact deep down. That is why you prefer using an already killed chicken; instead of killing it yourself. By doing so; you’re able to avoid killing chickens directly and hence the guilt is changed into subconscious guilt. However, if you don’t have this guilt in reality; you’ll be able to cut a live chicken; just like you cut a potato since you don’t have any guilt related to cutting or killing a potato.
Once again; it is not about whether this habit is good or bad; and it is about whether it is disturbing you or not. The reason you should try to kill live chickens is because this way you’ll be able to find out whether you have harmony on this issue or not. If you don’t feel bad while killing live chickens; it means your subconscious and conscious mind are harmonious on this issue and hence you have no problem inside you. However, if you feel disturbed while trying to kill chickens and you need conscious effort to do so; it means your minds are divided on this issue.
Your conscious mind says it is not bad whereas your subconscious mind says it is bad. This is why your hands may tremble and you may sweat a lot while trying to kill a chicken; since you don’t want to do it deep down. If such is the case; the only solution for having peace is that you should quit non-vegetarian food. It is just an example of one habit; and this practice may be carried out in case of many other habits; in order to check whether you’re peaceful related to them or not.
Looking at one more habit; if you consciously believe that peeing on roadside is fine and you want to check whether or not guilt is formed; which means harmony is disturbed when you do so; here is how to check it. If you’re cautious while doing so; which means you pay attention to the fact whether other people are watching you or not and you don’t do so when you’re with someone whose opinion about your overall image matters to you a lot; you’re not comfortable with this habit deep down.
For instance, if you avoid this practice when you’re with your girlfriend or boss; it means you’re not comfortable with this habit deep down; and guilt is being formed on subconscious level; each time you pee on the roadside. Here again, the objective of this discussion is not whether or not this habit is bad; the objective is to find out whether you’re peaceful with it or not. Whether a habit is good or bad depends on a number of variables and hence different people may have different opinions about it.