25 Aug 2024
[Ms. Thrylokya asked: Swami! What should be the behavior of a devotee towards the Sadguru and towards his co-devotees?]
Swami replied:- The Sadguru is the mighty ocean of true spiritual knowledge and your behavior towards Him doesn’t matter much because He is omniscient and omnipotent. You can be free and frank with Him at any time. But, your co-devotees are ignorant and not perfect like the Sadguru. Hence, your behavior towards your co-devotees should be very sensitive and very careful. If you want to advise your co-devotee about his/her defects, advise in person and not before all. Since the co-devotees are not perfectly developed in spiritual line, if you advise the co-devotee in the presence of all, the co-devotee will be hurt and discouraged to continue in the spiritual line and thus, the spiritual life of your co-devotee may be entirely spoiled. Since the co-devotee is ignorant, he/she is unable to understand your advice in positive side only avoiding the negative side. Even while you advise your co-devotee personally, there are three ways:- i) Advise her/him with sweetest and polite words without hurting even by a trace. ii) Advise him/her with moderately harsh words so that the co-devotee is not hurt much. iii) Advise him/her with very harsh words so that the co-devotee is mentally tortured and runs away from the spiritual line. You must have clearly understood that the first way is the best way in the case of any co-devotee with any type of nature. Sometimes, the hidden jealousy in you may project and create the wrong behavior to criticize your co-devotee in a very harsh manner in the presence of all.
You are the best judge to identify whether the hidden jealousy is raising in you or not. If you are aware that your hidden jealousy is responsible for your such behavior, know that your jealousy spoils all your hard-earned spiritual wealth like a poison drop that spoils a big pot of fresh milk. Your behavior towards your co-devotees is Pravrutti based Nivrutti whereas your behavior towards your Sadguru is pure Nivrutti. You need not fear for Nivrutti, but, you should be very careful about Pravrutti. If you find that you are advising the co-devotees due to your hidden jealousy, you must think that you have no right to criticize the defects of your co-devotees because you are also possessing the same or some other defects. Only the Sadguru, who cannot possess any defect has the authority to criticize and advise any defective devotee. When people wanted to kill a prostitute by stoning, Jesus told that the person, who did not do any sin shall throw the first stone at her. This means that Jesus alone is the authority to stone the prostitute. But, He tried to reform her in course of time by making her realize, repent and not repeat the sin in future, which is the real procedure of reformation. This teaches us that revenge belongs to God and we should hate the sin but not the sinner.
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