Gunatitanand Swami said that virtues define God and a Saint. Not opulence.
Demons too had opulence. Demon Hiranyakasipu was an Antaryami. If anyone in his kingdom chanted “Narayana”, he would at once know and punish them severely.
When we were in Rajkot Gurukul, we used to take children on a weekly field trip. Every Sunday we used to visit the Rajkot temple where Shreeji Maharaj’s Prasadi Bordi-tree is present. Then the children would roam around in the town and play.
One day, when the children were playing, by mistake a kid’s kanti broke by the finger of another kid. A devil took the chance and entered the kid’s body.
We took the boy to Gurukul and made him sit in Sadhu-Ashram and did Dhun of Swaminarayan. Then we asked him the details. To confirm if really a devil is present in the kid’s body, we showed a man sitting in Ashram and asked the devil to tell his name. Even we didn’t know the man’s name. The devil answered his name to our surprise. Then we asked how much money is in the man’s pocket. The devil answered exactly including the coins count.
We asked the devil, “How do you know the name?”
The devil replied, “His dhobi has written his name on the collar, upside down.”
Even the man didn’t know how much money exactly he had in his pocket, but the devil could count it being in the kid’s body.
It shows that even evil spirits have opulence.
Education, money, and power are considered very great in this world. Worldly opulence is measured based on these three factors.
If someone is very well educated, can we call him very Saintly? Or can we say he is demonic? The use of education, money, and power justifies if he is Saintly or Demonic, not just the mere possession of those.
Education could be used for one’s own good and other’s ultimate good. It could also be used to fight with others. Ravan was a great scholar in those times. Kind of Harvard university graduate. But he was killed by the God. Sudama, and Sabari were not well educated. Yet, they reached God by serving Saints and Guru.
Ravan had golden Lanka. Sri Krishna had golden Dwarka. Ravan snatched it from Kuber. He never donated a single penny to anyone. He never satisfied a single Brahmin and in turn always abused Saints.
Ravan had lot of power. Hanumanji too had lot of power. Hanuman lifted Dronachal mountain once in his life to serve Lord Ram. Ravan used to lift Kailash mountain daily. He used to do daily exercise of weight lifting with Kailash mountain. Kailash is larger than Dronachal mountain in size. Can we say Ravan was better than Hanumanji?
Hanuman used all his power to serve Lord Ram. He never used powers for his own benefit. Ravan used all power to disturb the work of Lord Ram. Ravan’s main intention was to destroy Ram’s work even at the cost of his own work.
Whatever things someone possess doesn’t make them Saintly or demonic but the use of them determines if the person is Saintly or demonic.
Maharaj said that whatever good we have should be used to serve a real Saint. God has given some good virtues to everyone. Some have wealth. Some have power. Some have education. Some have art. Some have talent. No need of achieving anything new. Whatever is given to you, use it to serve a real Saint and your ultimate good would follow you.
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20th June 2017: Tampa, FL
Vachanamrut Vadtal 10