Beauty ＆ Pure 148

"For one who is observing Sat-Achara, which is the perfect state of Love, even the desire for Liberation should be considered to be wrong, because desire implies a movement of the mind towards a second or third person, whereas Love has the form of unbroken and unmoving Existence. This is the significance of the ancient saying, 'Cut the desire even for God'.

"Though the meaning of Achara should be understood in this way, we find in our midst people who boast that they are observing acharas and that they are therefore certainly above all others in life. They maintain untouchability, they hide themselves while eating, they take great care in wearing their clothes in a particular manner, etc., yet at the same time they are mistaking the filthy body to be themselves and they have innumerable ugly desires. Can their behaviour be considered to be Achara? Surely not. Therefore, unless one attains Atma-Nishta [i.e. perfect Self-Abidance], all one’s boasting about observing acharas is