Who are We to Judge Others?

October 17, 2000

Dear Parents,

Namaskars, Hari Om and Sai Ram! All is OK here. Praying all are well there.

I sent you the birthday card yesterday. In the afternoon as Mataji was dictating letters to me, I mentioned that your birthday was coming up. To my surprise, immediately she dictated a letter and asked me to mail it along with mine.

You can just imagine my face as she dictated innocently, THE TWO ARE ONE! (Regarding my Dad and Mom being one and the same.) I tried hard not to burst out laughing, remembering that day in Prasanthi Nilayam room, us all laughing about that subject, hee hee! Hope you have a good laugh again! I just barely controlled bursting out in peels of laughter. But I wonder what she thought of my face twisted in a gaping smile, quivering to control a laugh! As usual she was her serious, caster-oil self. Hope she just thought the smile was due to being thrilled at the loving Mataji writing to my dearly beloved mother!

First, the toilet situation here is pretty miserable. The stench, renewed freshly every early morning, of the washed-ashore poop and pee is pretty nauseating and atrocious. Anyone outside my house can sniff it up nicely. But the situation is literally not in my hands. Karma is karma, no one can do anything to escape it.

Now, why are we here? What do we want to gain? What exactly is the goal of life? What will help us and what will harm us? These are very important and vital questions that we must never forget. Otherwise, we will be swept away into the very muddy whirlpool from which we have all good intentions to extract ourselves from.

The reason why I have avoided from the start, things like newspapers and news around the world is that they generally convey horrific and depressing stuff. Our duty in spiritual life is basically PURITY which leads to UNITY then DIVINITY. Do you or do you not all agree or not? To pour over all terrible events around the world and I guess newsy stuff on the Internet also, is to fill our heads with things that will destroy all the hard-earned purity of all these years of Sadhana.

I remember you mother writing me once Mom (how is she now, anyway??), how she reads the newspaper because she can find out things to pray about. You know my opinion is that we can just say LOKA SAMASTHA SUKHINO BHAVANTU! and be done with it. Why fill the mind with all unnecessary details? God has made the world like this. If we harp on the bad and leave the good, what good will it do to us and how in the world will it purify the mind? Remember this and beware.

That is one point. Another is, who are we to judge about things that we never witnessed first-hand? Jesus was a great Messenger of His Father. Even today some people speak against Him. What exactly is our duty, to purify ourselves by following His teachers or by filling our minds with doubt of His personal behavior, how he spent time around Tax Collectors, Mary Magdalene and etc.? Personally, I do not believe it. But even if it is true, what does it have to do with our own Sadhana and purification?

When we proclaim boldly that all is God and all are God, will it or will it not drag our consciousness down, to spend time in wild imaginations on the conduct of others, even great Messengers of God? We follow our hearts and conscience and behave accordingly.

Actually, who are we to judge others? What exactly is the extent of our perfect purity that we can spend time in talking against others? Is it not hurting our Sadhana to gossip with juicy joy, about the imagined or true faults in others? Do we have that authority to judge?

What about the Lord Krishna? Would it do us any good to talk of His well-documented 16,008 wives and ten children by each wife? Could we believe that such a being was God, were we living then? What about Rama sending His wife into the forest due to the word of a washerman? Is this wrong or not? Does it matter? Are we in a position to judge the ways of a Divine incarnation, from our puny and infinitely small consciousness?

What are all the teachings of the masters like, and what are the pit-falls in their followers? The fact is that the Masters had vast and infinitely expanded, unified vision. And the followers do everything they can to make it narrow-minded.

Now, what should we follow and what is important to our own progress, happiness and purity? Should we concentrate of our own hearts or should we spend time picking and pecking at the lives of others, especially incarnations? When normal men are stalked and slandered to ruin, what to say of the jealousy towards great and Divine beings?

I ask you, will it do us any good to spend all our time and give our mind not to pure feelings of helping others and being filled with joy, but by pecking at the lives of those beyond our understanding?

But alas, God has made human beings to grovel joyfully in the mud like pigs. Human beings are delighted to leave in a second the sweet-smelling flowers, to revel in the dirt of others. My opinion is, we should take the good and ignore the bad.

We are not first-hand witnesses to great beings like Jesus, Krishna and Rama. We should therefore not concern ourselves with juicy allegations, true (as in Krishna's case) or false (as, we believe, in the case of Jesus). Avatars are Avatars and we have not right to judge their actions. This is my firm faith. It is only when we reach those glorious heights, that we can judge. And by then, we see all truly as Him! We can only follow our own good.

It is said, ‘Follow the words of Krishna and the actions of Rama’. Means, we should not follow Krishna's actions! Some things the Avatars must do, according to the past sins and merits of certain individuals. That does not mean that we have any right to follow their example or condemn them. It is only wasting our time. We should not concern ourselves with what is true or false, but of our own Sadhana. We can also look to the good.

Say if there is a lady who has plenty of money. Say she helps others by building wells, hospitals, schools and helping thus thousands. Say she inspires others to also help people. Hundreds of thousands are benefited. Then we hear rumors about her. Does this mean we should stop doing good ourselves? Does this mean we should stop everything and give our minds to nagging doubts about her? When she is thousands of miles away and has no physical contact with us, how should it affect us? I say, bow to her service projects and don't judge the allegations that are most likely false. It is a waste of time to do otherwise.

The main and basic problem with doubts regarding figures in religion, is that instead of following teaching we are delighting in setting up images of worship. Should we worship an idol of Krishna or should we follow His teachings, to reach the goal of eternal happiness beyond doubts? Did any Master stress, "Set up an idol and worship Me, the perfect and unbelievable physical personality"?

If we are told to worship, it is because the mentality of some people are so dull and shallow that it is the only way to infuse noble qualities and devotional bents into their thick skulls. But I wonder if it does more harm than good, because all concentration is put onto the form of the personality not teaching.

Then what happens? It is the nature of humans to worship and adore SOME outside form, be it animate or inanimate, near or far. If any doubts arise on it, one is thrown into absolutely unbiased feelings of disillusionment and disenchantment (not unmixed with a thrill of activity in a stagnating consciousness). Then one idol is dropped and another idol or religion is begun. Is this not folly? Is this is what we should be given our mind to?

Dead saints are less trouble, because there are no fresh rumors assailing their unbelievable lives. Look at any Avatar or saint, and we will see that in their lifetime their popularity was minuscule. Why? Of course, because forces come to put obstacles, spreading real or imagined rumors as discussed earlier!

After death of the physical body, generally the good wins out and stays on, whereas the so-called bad, imagined or not (again, who are we to judge ones beyond our state?), fades away into a tiny pinpoint. Then-PUFF! - popularity gains into a landslide and spreads to the whole world. Lives of Hindu, Christian and other religions Avatars and saints are ample testimony for this.

Be practical and use precious time for our own purification, is my humble advise! And, if that advice is not palatable, then feel free to pick and peck the lives of those who only tried to do good, but not around me. You won't find me giving my mind to the juicy negative deliberations to fall headlong into dark, dark regions-the regions that we have struggled our whole life to arise out of.

OK, I am all tired out!

As for the Doggie Soap Opera, as usual when a beloved is taken away or dies, Vijay receded into a dark depression of lethargy and fasting for a week, after the death of his Mum, Mangamma. But then one bright day a new lady doggie appeared, a haggled old red dog. Nothing like a new, willing lady friend to lift up the sagging spirits of a gent, eh, hee hee!

Vijay's tail immediately went up high above his behind, first time in a week! He came out of his depression and a fraternal friendship was struck up between them. It was enough to get him out and about, even with wondering bullies who were coming less and less.

Vijay was normal again after two days with Girijamma ('Daughter of the mountain' It is a name of Parvati, wife of Siva. 'Giri' means mountain' Because this old dog suddenly came out of our hilly mountains!) Then the rowdy batch got her and Vijay is again alone.

The New Secretary has all new plans to save expenses here. He is ordering the water to be switched off regularly (as if the broken motors and lack of current, which also stops motors, weren't enough!), due to too much use of water (due to more construction and watering of gardens!) So we are often suffering. As soon as there is water, everyone rushes to fill buckets before it disappears again. LIFE!

Here we are having light rains now and then, for an hour or two every few days. We were sweating until a couple of days ago, until a cold chill blew in. Then I remembered winter, gone since nearly nine months!! But I guess the body could adjust maybe.

OK-it is 8:30 PM and I have discourses to get to. I have a whole long list of things to print - Mataji's letters, letter to Vidya, office forms etc. but an hour ago the printer stabilizer would not come one-high voltage! I will try again tomorrow morning.

The current actually has been regular for the last three or four days. This means they turned it off and on at regular times (excepting a few 5-minute black outs): two days off from 12 midnight to 12 noon, and other two days off 12 noon till 6 PM then 12 midnight till 7 AM.

OK- I gave you a mouthful. More later, see ya! LOKA SAMASTHA SUKHINO BHAVANTU!

Love,

Divya