Let’s say that a person is full of lust or ego or jealousy. When he goes on to the stage to give some self-help tips to others, will he speak in favor of those bad qualities? Or against?
He speaks against those bad qualities.
In an assembly, when a fake saint speaks negatively about bad qualities like anger, ego, pride, miser, deceit, worldly pleasures, desires, etc., does it mean those bad qualities are not present in him?
No, not at all.
Let us discuss this with an example.
Let us say there is a brave warrior who goes to the battlefield, takes out his sword, and attacks the enemies. There is another person who is a very good stage actor as a warrior and who could display his sword skills of the war on stage.
Are they both the same? Or are they different?
There is this original Bhishma Pitamah fighting a war. And there is this actor on the stage who took the role of Bhishma Pitamah fighting the war scenes. Whose sword movements are attractive and good-looking?
The actor Bhishma Pitamah on stage does very attractive sword movements with his shiny sword than the original Bhishma Pitamah.
Similarly, the words of a fake saint look very attractive and shiny than a true saint.
The sword movements of the actor warrior are so sharp and perfect than the sword movements of a real warrior. When the actor warrior moves the sword, he moves it so fast that we can’t see the sword, but we can see only the glittering of the sword.
Similarly, the words of a fake saint are so good that we can’t actually see the essence of it, but we can only see the glittering sweetness of his fake words.
The actor warrior and the real warrior have another key difference. What is their primary focus when they move their swords?
What would be the focus of a real warrior on the battlefield?
A real warrior is constantly pumped with this thought: “I should hit the enemy right at the target. And with one intense hit, the enemy’s body should be split into two halves. Even if someone hits me, I am fine with it. But with one hit, the target should be smashed.”
What would be the focus of an actor warrior in the stage battle?
The actor warrior is always careful that “I should always be alert that no one is hit by this sword. I should perform very attractive and full-fledged movements of the sword in such a way that the sword doesn’t harm anyone including myself.”
Similarly, a true saint is constantly pumped with this thought: “I should make sure every soul I meet gets freed from worldly pulls and I should also make sure to establish the murti of Bhagwan in every soul I come across. Even if someone blames me, I am fine with it. But every soul I meet should be cleansed and placed at the feet of Bhagwan.”
On the other hand, a fake saint is always careful that “I should do very attractive speeches about the topics that are valued the most, such as winning over internal enemies, yet I should be very careful that those words of mine neither transform me nor transform others.”
The actor warrior undergoes a lot of practice with a single intention: “How to show it real?” With that intention, the actor warrior practices more rigorously than a real warrior.
The viewers shower a rain of praises on the actor warrior: “Wonderful. I have never seen someone moving a sword so charmingly.” Yet all the glittering of the sword on stage is fake.
Similarly, to show himself as a true saint, the fake saint undergoes rigorous practices than a true saint.
The viewers shower a rain of praises on fake saint’s katha: “Wow. I have never heard such a marvelous katha.” Yet all his glittering words are fake.
To find the key difference between a true saint and a fake saint from their words is very difficult unless we have extreme hunger for our own kalyan. Only when we are extremely alert would we know the intention of the speaker of a katha.
Nishkulanand Swami, the author of Chosathpadi scripture on which this book is based, is not asking us to look down on someone or to hate someone. Swami is asking us to put efforts to look at the intentions of the saint we associate with.
A bad person is intelligent than a good person
Is it good to have extreme faith in someone?
It depends on the person on whom our faith rests.
If one has faith in a fake person, such faith is harmful to himself. If he gets cheated because of his faith in someone, such faith is harmful to himself. If he gets benefitted because of his faith in someone, such faith is useful to him.
In this world, how many people are making good use of their faith, and how many are misusing faith? If we compare the numbers, a majority portion of the population is misusing their faith by being extremely faithful to unworthy souls.
In taking advantage of other people’s faith, who is intelligent between a good-natured person and a bad-natured person? And why?
A bad-natured person is more intelligent in taking advantage of other people’s faith and sincerity than a good-natured person. Why is a bad-natured person more intelligent than a good-natured person? Did Bhagwan favor the bad-natured person by blessing him with more intelligence?
Bhagwan didn’t favor bad-natured people. They are more intelligent because of the rigorous practices and drills employed to sharpen their intelligence.
Rigorous practices of bad-natured people are praiseworthy. Good-natured people don’t undergo such rigorous practice and drills as a bad-natured person does.
Why are demons so sharp?
They do intense practices and drills on their own strengths. And they do it repeatedly and regularly. They keep doing intense practice and keep their skills sharp no matter whether they use them or not.
On the other hand, a good-natured person, when faced with a tough situation, doesn’t have time to sharpen their skills. And when they don’t face a situation, they think “If I am not faced with a difficult situation, what is the need to sharpen my skills?” That is the mentality of a good-natured person.
A demonic person’s mentality is: Whether I am faced with a tough situation or not, I should keep doing rigorous practices and sharpen my skills.
And so, all the skills of demons, including intelligence, are very intense and sharp. Thus, a fake person’s intelligence is always intense and sharp.
One should be aware of who he is associating with
Faith is an important value, and it is not a bad thing in itself. However, along with faith, we should also know the difference between a true saint and a fake saint. We should have that intelligence to achieve our kalyan. In fact, the intelligence of knowing the difference between a true and a fake saint is more essential than faith.
Even when Shreeji Maharaj was on this earth, many devotees, after leaving their mortal bodies, would not necessarily reach Akshardham.
One of such incidents is mentioned in Gopalanand Swami Ni Vato. A son of a devotee who had just passed away came to Maharaj and asked, “Maharaj, where did my father go after leaving his body?”
Maharaj replied, “Go and search in Akshardham,” and sent him to Akshardham through samadhi (trance). The son was not able to find his father in Akshardham.
He returned to Maharaj and said, “Maharaj, my father is not in Akshardham.”
Maharaj asked, “On which saint did he have faith in? With whom was he doing satsang?”
The son told the name of the saint his father was associating with, and Maharaj immediately replied, “He must be in Vaikunt. Go and check over there.”
The son was sent to Vaikunt to search for his father and eventually found him over there.
So, even during Maharaj times and Gunatitanand Swami times, devotees need to have the intelligence to decide with whom should they do satsang, and with whom should they not do satsang if they really want to go to Akshardham.
We should not think like this: “Why should we differentiate between two saints or two devotees. Everyone is good if he is a saint or a devotee.”
If we want to reach Akshardham alone, if we want to reach Maharaj alone, and not anywhere else, then we should be very careful on with whom we do satsang and with whom we should not do satsang.
References:
- Chosathpadi Katha Part 12 (Pad 11).