Guidelines for worldly interactions

We are all Pure Consciousness.

Begin all interactions with a sAttvic attitude but cultivate vairAgyam (dispassion). Practice the yoga of maitrI karuNA etc. in all interactions.

Recall the trials of the great RShis. VishvAmitra had to perform great tapas to attain the status of Brahma RShi. One cannot become a VasiShTha without great tapas. Their stories are greatly inspiring so that every man may strive to be a VasiShTha and every woman an arundhatI. These may seem to be hopeless idealizations in Kali Yuga, but the option of not having an ideal to aspire towards is depressing. If one slips from the path and the ideal, pick yourself up, learn and internalize the lesson and continue. Always give up attachment but never let go of the Goal. This is what SwamiJ says.

Recall the great story of Shiva and PArvati, and how she fasted as aparNA without even leaves to gain Shiva. Of course, in the embodied human state one has limitations. Better to be humble and accept one's limitations and seek to overcome them through sAdhanA.

Moderate interactions with those who do not exhibit buddhi. Always take refuge in buddhi. This is of course Kali Yuga, but the point is not to relax one's own moral standard but to recognize that the ideal relationships of Shiva and PArvatI, VasiShTha and arundhatI, are not feasible in this aeon but we have to purify to reach the other Yuga as say yAjnavAlkya. Also one should only look to one's own moral standards and not comment on those of others. It is best to simply avoid those interactions with people who do not conform to those standards that might lead to not upholding one's own.

All actions that have their basis in svadharma (to know one's Self) and Vedic dharma never fail to yield the desired fruit. But many do not see the wisdom in such dharma because they are hard to practice. But dharma and sAdhanA do save the aspirant. Sometimes when both the svadharma and Vaidika dharma are transgressed, then only the laukIka dharma (the laws and dharma of this world and time) saves the aspirant from dire circumstances.