Discrimination

NEIGHBOUR: "What is discrimination?"

MASTER: "Discrimination is the reasoning by which one knows that God alone is real and all else is unreal. Real means eternal, and unreal means impermanent. He who has acquired discrimination knows that God is the only Substance and all else is non-existent. With the awakening of this spirit of discrimination a man wants to know God.  

On the contrary, if a man loves the unreal - such things as creature comforts, name, fame, and wealth, then he doesn't want to know God, who is of the very nature of Reality. Through discrimination between the Real and the unreal one seeks to know God. 

"Listen to a song: 

           Come, let us go for a walk, O mind, to Kāli, the Wish-fulfilling Tree, 

           And there beneath It gather the four fruits of life. 

           Of your two wives, Dispassion and Worldliness, 

           Bring along Dispassion only, on your way to the Tree, 

          And ask her son Discrimination about the Truth.  …

- Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, P 327 (28 November 1883)