Righteousness has an objective existence of its own, and does not depend upon your belief. It has its own quality and form. We call as fire that which has the capacity to burn. The capacity to burn is the natural quality of fire. Whether you believe or not, fire will have the capacity to burn. This capacity to burn does not depend upon your convictions about what fire can or cannot do. Whether you touch it knowingly or unknowingly, it will still burn you because that is its quality. Similarly, consider ice. Coldness is natural attribute of ice. Whether you believe or not, it would still display its coldness. If this feature is absent in it, it cannot be termed ice any longer because it has lost its quality. Take another example. The Sun shines. Shining brilliantly is its natural attribute. You may not be able to see the Sun shining brightly. But the Sun will still shine, and this capacity is not based upon your belief. You may be unable to see due to the clouds covering it, or you may be blind; just because you cannot see, you cannot say that the Sun is incapable of shining.
Similarly, man is also characterised by a quality. What is this quality? It is to undertake every task with Trikaransuddhi, which means the unity of mind, speech and body. This is the feature that qualifies one to be called a man. Trikaranasuddhi is the Dharma of man. To think something in the mind, speak something else and do something totally different from both is Adharma (unrighteous). Today, if unrighteousness is rampant, it is due to the lack of unity in thought, word and deed. Starting from the educated ones to the illiterate, there is no sign of anyone observing this unity. (SSB 1996, pp. 102-103)