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Deciding How to Act Amidst Conflicting Value Sets · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  People frequently have to wrestle with conflicting
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  emotions, unclear and confusing thoughts, and the need to
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  balance duties, demands or considerations that appear to be
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  opposed to one another. In some cases, we obtain facts
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  which, if expressed to another person, will presumably cause
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  them suffering. Yet withholding that information
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  can have negative consequences. How frequently we have to deal
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  with someone who has a serious health issue or who has a
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  relationship issue which we learn about but feel reticent to
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  share. Is it better to speak with the
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  individual or to remain quiet? We see someone being verbally or
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  physically abused or bullied on the street.
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  Do we intervene or walk by and not involve ourselves?
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  We see an employer wrongfully browbeating an employee and we
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  have to choose whether to intervene and perhaps endanger
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  our own employment, or to let the ire fall on the other person
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  and remain quiet and hope to not be noticed.
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  We may hear a person being maligned and undercut behind
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  their back about things we know to be untrue.
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  Do we respond and counter the malicious claims being made?
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  We see underlying all these situations a variety of
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  potential responses, some dictated by fear, some by a
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  desire not to cause pain, some to hide some indiscretion,
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  etcetera. We make decisions in all kinds
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  of situations based on some kind of internal process, possibly a
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  balancing act between conflicting moral or ethical
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  requirements, possibly due to fear or unwillingness to stand
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  up and oppose an injustice as it would require getting involved
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  when all we want is to have peace and live and let live.
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  There may be an element of physical fear involved, or the
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  thought that intervention would not help, or possibly that it is
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  not our role to intervene in the karma of others.
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  As long as we are acting from the physical, vital, emotional,
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  mental planes or some mix of them, and the needs,
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  expectations or fears of the external being, we find that we
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  can become paralyzed into inaction as we cannot decide
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  what exactly is the right course of action.
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  These levels are not founded in knowledge as they judge things
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  from outside and as separate without a complete sense of what
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  is really taking place, which can only be known through a
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  knowledge by identity. Knowledge by identity occurs
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  through the unification with the soul consciousness that is
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  connected to the one consciousness that permeates and
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  manifests the entire created universe and transcends it.
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  From this level, the knowledge of exactly what needs to be said
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  or done arises and there is no conflict as it is a truth
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  awareness that goes beyond all the moral and ethical codes, all
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  the fears, emotions, biases, instinctive behaviors or mental
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  logic. The mother observes.
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  Quote for example, you are in contact with someone, you have
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  very good feelings for this person, you find yourself in a
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  slightly difficult circumstance and want to do the best
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  possible. If you act spontaneously, there
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  is no problem before you, because you act like that one
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  thing trailing another and without reflecting and you
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  consciously want to do the best. On what will you base your
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  judgement? What knowledge will allow you to
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  decide I must do this or I must do that, I must say this or I
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  must say that, or I must not say anything?
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  All the countless possibilities which come before you, and on
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  what will you base your judgement?
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  If you look at it sincerely, you will find out that at each step
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  you do not know. It is only if you have been in
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  the habit of going within yourself, of referring to the
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  inner psychic consciousness and letting it decide in yourself
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  what you want to do, that you do it with certitude, without
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  hesitation, without a question, nothing.
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  You know that this is what must be done, and there is no
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  question about it. But that's the only case.
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  Therefore, it is only when you let your psychic guide you
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  consciously constantly that you are able to do consciously and
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  constantly the right thing. But that's the only case.
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  End Quote. Reference Sri Aurobindo and the
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  Mother, the psychic being soul, its nature, mission and
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  evolution. Section 2.
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  Role, function and Action of the Psychic.
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  Pages 62 to 63.