Go by consciousness
All our values are nothing but a substitute for consciousness.
If you are conscious, aware of what you are doing, you don't need values to tell you what to do. You don't have to follow any rules. Rules will be following you! If you are conscious, all virtues and discipline and spirituality will happen to you and you will naturally flower into a state of spiritual elevation.
Somehow, whenever we hear words like consciousness or spiritual elevation, we always think, 'No, no, this is not for me!' Without even trying any meditation technique, any practical way of elevating the consciousness, we come to the conclusion that this is not for us. So we go in for a substitute, for pseudoconsciousness – which is called morality, conscience, values.
Pick up the science of meditation, that's enough. Then nothing can touch you.
Values are fine when you are at the starting point – but not as the ending point!
Vivekananda says beautifully, 'It is good to be born in the church, but not to die there!'
We should first drop the idea that to be spiritual is very difficult and different.
There is a song by Bhagwan Ramana Maharishi, an enlightened master from Bharat:
Ayyae, ati sulabham, atmavidyai, ayyae, ati sulabham!
It means, 'Oh, so easy, this spirituality; oh, so easy!'
In a later stanza he says,
If you want money, you need to work hard.
If you're looking for name and fame, you need to work hard.
Values are fine when you are at the starting point – but not as the ending point!
If you want self-realization, all you need to do is keep still!
If you can slip into deep laziness, you will fall into divinity!
This laziness is not what we normally know as laziness. It is not physical laziness. It's a kind of… mental laziness! If you can completely – I mean completely – calm yourself, you can verily be spiritual.
To be spiritual is neither easy nor difficult. It's just the idea that you have. If you think it's easy, it's easy. If you think it's difficult, it's difficult. To be as you are, what is needed? Is it difficult or easy?
You cannot even use the word easy! It is as you are, right? You are already that, then how can you say it is easy to become that?
Just look in. Turn inward. A little trust in spirituality and a little meditation; that is enough! When you drop the fear, that to be spiritual is very difficult, you will get the confidence that, 'Yes, I can be spiritual. I can be conscious.' Then the question of 'is it right to drop my values', will not arise at all.
Right now you are afraid to drop your values because you have nothing else to hold on to! We know, once we drop our values, all the suppressed desires will jump as if the Pandora's Box has been opened! And we know, if the Pandora's Box opens, there will be only chaos! We are afraid of our subconscious.
If you continuously practice meditation, your subconscious will be cleared. Then you will see, even if you open the Pandora's Box, there is nothing in there to jump out. You will see your face reflected in it; you will see a clear mirror!