23. When some good action gets done through our hands, we are inclined to take the credit for it and feel proud. Why? Because it was not done naturally. When a good action gets done through a child's hands, the mother pats it on the back. Otherwise, the child's back would ordinarily know only the touch of the mother's cane. When in the thick darkness of the night there are a few fire-flies, look how proudly they show themselves off! They do not display at their brightness at once. The fire-fly twinkles and stops and twinkles again, as if it were playing hide and seek with light. But if its light were steady, it would not be so proud. 

Because it is constant, one notices nothing special in it. If, in the same way sattva shines constantly in all our actions, it would become our nature. Not only is the lion not proud of its strength, it is not even conscious of it. So too, sattvik conduct must be so natural and spontaneous with us that we do not even think of it. It is natural for the sun to give light. The sun takes no pride in it. If anybody sets out to present it with a testimonial, it would say, "What is the special thing that I have done? I do no more than give light. My life consists in giving light. If I did not do that, I would die. What else could I do?"  

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