Nishkulanand Swami’s “Kalyan-Nirnay” scripture explains a beautiful case:
Let us say there is a fake Saint, and a real devotee submits to him. The fake Saint is so clever that he hides his pretense and makes sure that it is never revealed. The real devotee does sincere worship of the Saint and completely surrenders to him thinking that God resides in the heart of this Saint. At the end, Yamraj took the fake Saint. Now what happens to the real devotee? Does Yamraj take him as well? Devotee was faithful. He worshiped the Saint believing that God resides in him. What will happen to him finally?
Ignorance is not innocence. He too will follow the fake Saint.
Imagine you are driving on the road, and you ignored the red-light and jumped the signal. When the police came to you and you said, “Sir, I did not know that I had to stop at the red-light.”
The police would simply give you a violation ticket and reply, “Do not worry my boy. Now you will know what is right and what is wrong.”
We cannot hide the ignorance under innocence. For the one who wanted to achieve ultimate good – “I did not know that they were wrong,” is not right. You should know what you should know.
If you wanted to go to Maharaj, you should know the proper way of reaching Maharaj. We should reach Maharaj through the medium of a right Saint. Respect everyone. But submit only to the right one.
Why are you submitting to a Saint? If we submit to a real Saint, our effort will reach Maharaj for sure. Real Saint is like an electric wire: they transmit whatever is submitted to them to Maharaj. If we submit to a fake Saint, it doesn’t reach Maharaj at all. Fake Saint is like a wooden cable: the electricity doesn’t pass through and it is completely lost at the fake Saint himself. The whole life efforts would be wasted if you submit to a wrong Saint.
Submit to a real Saint if you really want to achieve ultimate good. Otherwise any Saint is fine.
References:
20th June 2017: Tampa, FL
Vachanamrut Vadtal 10