Most of us want to be and do, good. However, in everyday life, it’s not so straightforward! We continually do or say things we wish we had not. Or, worse, we may very well say and do the right thing, but inside there are the very unrighteous feelings of dislike, irritability, and every other sort of negativity. We are one thing on the outside, something else on the inside. This reduces the benefits of ‘being good’ to almost nothing, leaving us wondering if ‘being good’ is worth all the trouble.
Being good should make us happy, fulfilled individuals. Being good should make others happy to be with us. Yet so often, even while doing our best to be good, we still get hurt. Others don’t appreciate our efforts; they disapprove of us. They keep their distance.
There is however, a very powerful way to be good, one that guarantees all the benefits, and that is to be ‘quietly’ good. This kind of goodness is not the same as that which most of us have been working with. It is an internal goodness that is based on a constant, elevated awareness that the original nature of the self, and God, is one of supreme and divine goodness. This awareness greatly increases confidence in the value of goodness. It also creates a lot of enthusiasm for personal transformation; we long for a goodness that flows, unstoppably, from the inside, out.
If we fail to recharge the battery of our cell phone, how well will it function? In the same way, if we fail to keep the soul — our innermost self — ‘charged’, how effective will be our goodness? It will be goodness filled with neediness, making us into takers rather than givers. Trying to give while running on empty is the real reason our good intentions still cause so much unhappiness.
Being quietly good means that our attention is on keeping ourselves ‘plugged in’. We fill ourselves with the pure peace and love coming from God. This creates fulfilment — yes! Fulfilment exists! — and being good starts becoming natural and easy. We radiate what we are. When we ourselves are full and happy, those are the vibrations we share.
The world today needs us to be quietly good; it needs the peace, love and happiness that God is just waiting for us to claim, as an inheritance. We only need to make that connection.
Sharona Stillerman coordinates the activities of the Brahma Kumaris in Israel.
