Table of Contents
 

1. Introduction

2. What is personality?

3. What are personality qualities and defects?

4. Actions and reactions

5. The process of removal of personality defects as spiritual practice

1. Introduction

There is a saying in ancient scriptures that the mind is responsible for both, man's binding and his ultimate liberation, from the cycle of birth-death or happiness-unhappiness. The personality defects in a person are responsible for unhappiness, whereas his qualities are responsible for happiness and contentment. The qualities or defects seen in an individual stem from the corresponding impressions of qualities or defects in his sub-conscious mind.

For an individual to lead a happy life and do effective spiritual practice it is essential that the personality defects are destroyed and qualities are imbibed or developed. Personality defects are the main obstacle in obtaining/experiencing happiness or contentment in one's life. Also they are the main obstacle in one's efforts towards attaining God, i.e. in one's spiritual practice. The more the personality defects, the more the mistakes in one's individual and collective spiritual practice and the farther away one is from the God. Hence, to avoid this, it is essential to remove personality defects.

2. What is personality?

While performing any action, when the same impressions from the sub-conscious mind keep surfacing repeatedly, they are collectively labelled as 'personality'. In short, personality means a person's nature. In many individuals, the occurrence of this happens so often that one can classify them as qualities or defects.

3. What are personality qualities and defects?

Generally, good impressions/habits are called personality qualities and bad impressions/habits are called personality defects. If due to an action caused by a certain personality aspect, a person or someone else suffers, that aspect is known as a personality defect. Here we will discuss only personality defects.

4. Actions and reactions

Our actions and reactions are dependant on the impressions/habits of our mind. Improper actions and reactions create problems either for us or for others. Due to to an improper action one can cause reactions to surface in someone else's mind. Therefore, one should pay attention to one's actions and reactions in minute detail, constantly.

5. The process of removal of personality defects as spiritual practice 

The process of removing personality defects from the perspective that they are an impediment in one's spiritual growth is known as 'the process of removing personality defects as spiritual practice.' We all know that a drop of oil cannot merge with water completely. This is because the characteristics of both are very different from each other. So to achieve the pinnacle of spiritual growth, i.e. God-Realisation or merging with God, we need to remove all our personality defects. This is because God has no defects.

Even if our spiritual aim is not the highest, i.e. God-Realisation, we need to remove our personality defects at least to some extent just to avoid ill-effects at the physical, psychological, society and spiritual level and to be able to lead a fulfilling life. Some removal of our defects also makes our personality and the environment around us more conducive to spiritual practice.

Source: Courtesy of Spiritual Science Research Foundation