But if somebody is actually successful in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, they come to this position where they have no more impetus, or they have no more urge at all to criticize others, to drag them down, such is the character of Śrīla Rādhānatha Māharaja. And I'll give you a rather obscure example, although I'm sure you have many more from your own experience. But I was surprised one day when I was in Māyāpur and I went to one of his classes. It was a smaller, smallish type class, if you can imagine Māharaja giving a class to a small group of devotees.

But it was at the Gurukula, and I had gone there, and it was a section of the Bhāgavatam that I had been also reading. It was about the Pracetās , and you might remember when the Pracetās came out of their deep meditation, deep in the water, and they noticed that the whole planet had been covered with trees,they were angry, and they were endowed with mystic power, and that, plus their anger, they were, they would manifest fire from their eyes. And they started burning all the trees because they said, What did you do? You took over the whole planet. And I had already always come to that section and thought, oh, that's odd that they've done so many austerities. And they got the blessings of the Lord and Lord Śiva blessed them, and then they came out angry. But when I heard Māharaja's class, he didn't say anything like that. He said they saw they had so much service to do, and because of that they were clearing some space, and he honestly didn't touch on it, that the idea that I had caught on that, like, why are they so angry that fire is coming into their eyes? And I marked that, and I've marked it other times when he's given other examples. Ways in which I've had a conundrum and thought, why is that happening?

And then his interpretation is the one that includes the appreciation of that personality from the point of view of their service, and doesn't touch on some conundrum that, why were they angry. He takes the route of no criticism. It comes out in subtle ways, and you can't fake that. It's something that arises in the heart of someone who's actually attached to Kṛṣṇa and actually feels kinship with all souls and feels happy and fulfilled. It's a rare opportunity to find such a person and those who dedicate themselves by educating themselves about what is a bona fide spiritual master, what is Kṛṣṇa's instruction about how to serve a spiritual master, and then those who are in that category, who take up that service, are great souls. All of you are great souls because you have a bona fide spiritual master. And in the most heartfelt and enthusiastic way you've taken up service to him. (excerpt from HG Vaiśeṣika Dāsa's offering, 29 Nov 2024 )

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https://thefourquestionsbook.com/

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