This, the very first Sutra stresses on one lesson: He who devotes his life to earn the knowledge of the Atma that is his self, must possess holy virtues, and they must mould his conduct and contacts sacrosanct. For, no knowledge can be higher than virtuous character. Character is power, really speaking. For the person who has dedicated his years to the acquisition of higher learning, ever-good character is an indispensable qualification. Every religion emphasises the same need, not as a special credal condition, but as the basis of spiritual life and conduct itself. Those who lead lives on these lines can never come to harm. They will be endowed with sacred merit.

Virtues are the most effective means for purifying the inner consciousness of man, at all levels. For, they prompt the person to discover what to do and how to do. Only those who have earned good destiny can claim their excellence in discrimination. And, adherence to this determination is the raft which can take man across the ocean of flux and fear, the Bhava Sagara. The man of virtues has a place in the region of the liberated. Whatever the residual activity a person has perforce to engage himself in, the impact of that activity will not impinge on him, provided he is a man of virtue. He can merge in Brahmam, the embodiment of Supreme Bliss.

A person might have performed a variety of Vedic rites and sacrifices; he might even be expounding the contents of a variety of sacred scriptures he has mastered; he might be a person endowed with prosperity, owning vast wealth and heaps of grain; he might teach the Vedas and their complementary disciplines with due exposition of meanings; but, if such people have no moral character, they have no place where Brahmam is taught or learnt. This is the lesson this Sutra conveys.

For, the stage of equanimity so essential for spiritual progress can be gained only when the intellect is cleansed of the blot of deluding attachments and involvements. Devoid of that serenity, the intellect or Buddhi cannot proceed on the trail of Brahmam. Why? The term Virtue is only another name for the 'intelligence' that follows the promptings of the Atma, the Self which is our Reality. Only he who has such virtue can win the awareness of the Atma, the Truth. And, once that awareness is gained he can not more be caught in delusion or desire; they cannot touch him any longer.

Desire and bondage to the objects desired and the plans to secure them are the attributes of the individualised selves, not of the Self or Atma resident in the body. The sense of me and mine, and the emotions of lust and anger originate in the body-mind complex. Only when this complex is conquered and outgrown can true virtue emanate and manifest.