One who lives only to feed his body and fulfill his bodily desires is a person with an animal mindset.
Parikshit Maharaj was a great soul with detachment. All his great qualities from the time of his birth were described in the scriptures. In donating to the needy, for example, the scriptures mentioned that he was comparable to King Bali.
He was such a great soul, yet Shukdevji asked him to give up his animal mindset.
Shukdevji told him:
पशुबुद्धिमिमां जहि
paśu-buddhim imāṁ jahi
Definition: “O King, please give up your animal mindset.”
[SB 12.5.2]What is the mindset of an animal? The only focus of an animal is to take care of its own body.
Vedas state that:
आहार-निद्रा-भय-मैथुनं च
समानमेतत्पशुभिर्नराणाम् ।
āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca
sāmānyam etat paśubhir narāṇām
Definition: Eating, sleeping, mating, and defending—these are the four activities of life that are common in humans and animals.
If one’s only purpose of living is to fulfill these four activities, then he has an animal mindset.
Every day, a bull, to feed itself, does a lot of hard work. Donkey, which is considered a lowly animal, to feed itself, also does a lot of hard work of helping humans in their daily chores.
Fake saints are like animals; they only live to fulfill their own bodily desires. However, even animals are better than fake saints. One key difference between animals and fake saints is that animals don’t need to praise themselves to fulfill their needs. A donkey or bull doesn’t care about being seen as the smartest or fastest of their kind. The animals don’t think, “I am a great donkey” or “I am the smartest bull”. No matter what they are, they get food to eat because of their hard work.
On the other hand, a fake saint doesn’t work but does a lot of self-praise either directly by himself or through others. He has to boast that he is one of the greatest saints and praises his own saintliness, greatness, capabilities, and lifestyle. Why does he do that?
He needs something; he needs something not related to Bhagwan but related to this body; he needs something to fulfill their animal mindset.
How many souls are working hard to achieve something related to Bhagwan? Very few.
Bhagwat Gita says:
मनुष्याणां सहस्रेषु
“manusyanam sahasresu.”
[BG 7.3]Definition: If one asks thousands of people if they are doing anything for Bhagwan, he may find only one person in fact working for Bhagwan.
Shreeji Maharaj has said that a saint shouldn’t worry about feeding himself as He has already made all the arrangements to make sure each saint is fed. Yet, a fake saint does self-praise to fulfill his bodily mindset. All the efforts of a fake saint are to fulfill temporary worldly pleasures.
In this world, even a fake saint shouldn’t worry about feeding himself. Even though he is fake, his appearance as a saint brings him enough food to eat for life. People of this world have a lot of respect for saints, and so they will always make sure that the saints are fed enough.
Then why do they praise themselves? A fake saint wants to experience everything that the material world has to offer. And so, he must praise himself. He has no power, yet he wants to have a lot of power. He is incapable, yet he wants to enjoy name, fame, greatness, luxury, etc., To achieve these worldly pulls, there is no way for him other than self-praise.
And so, Nishkulanand Swami says that, until death, a fake saint doesn’t stop praising himself. That is the lifestyle of an animal, which nowhere matches the lifestyle of a true saint.
References:
- Chosathpadi Katha Part 07 (Pad 07).
- Pashu buddhim imām jahi – ŚB 12.5.2 (vedabase.io)
manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu – Bg. 7.3 (vedabase.io)