Criticism

 

    Among all the living beings, the gift given by God to man alone is the intellect. Only this intellect has the power to inquire into what is good and what is bad and choose the good. This inquiry is also called criticism. Shri Babuji Maharaj used to say, 'Every night, before you go to bed, review the actions and thoughts you have done that day and ask yourself, to what extent are those actions or thoughts useful for your sadhana? Which of them are degrading you?' Everyone should make it a habit to self-criticize. Such self-criticism helps us to assess whether the path we are traveling on is right or not. It gives us the opportunity to change our path and come back to the right one before traveling too far on the wrong path.

    But how many of us do self-criticism like this? Most of our lives are spent judging the good and bad of others and criticizing them. Even if our conscience points out our mistakes, we try to cover them up by telling ourselves that there is some compelling reason for doing that mistake. We also try to show the small good deeds we do in a magnifying glass so that everyone will recognize them. Our Arsha Dharma teaches that praising yourself and blaming others are both great sins.

    However, even if we change to a righteous path with the teachings of Gurudev, the world around us will not change! No matter what we do, there are always those who will try to find some flaw in it and criticize us. When we face criticism, our mind rises up like a cobra whose tail has been trampled. However, this is where we should use our wisdom and slow down a little. 'It's fine to listen to whatever anyone says. But the wise man is the one who, doesn't come to a decision on just hearing, thinks with his mind and knows the truth and falsehood in it' - says Sumathi Sataka in Telugu.

    When someone says something, one should not get angry immediately and stop for a moment and look for the truth in their words. Because no matter how experienced one is, no matter how skilled one is in the work he does, there will always be some fault somewhere. 'Sarvarambha hi doshena dhoomenagni rivavrutah' - Just as smoke surrounds fire, all the things we do are always surrounded by some fault, as the Gitacharya himself said! Therefore, we should stop for a moment and self-criticize the work we have done or our personality to see how much truth there is in the criticism of others. And if there is really a fault in us, we should try to correct it.

    'Those who point out faults in us are our helpers,' said Sri Ramadas. Because criticism is beneficial for us in both ways. If there is truth in their criticism, it helps us to know and correct our mistakes, and thereby reach a higher state. Even if there is no truth in that criticism and it is done just to hurt or humiliate us, if we accept it with a good conscience, it will free us from our bad karma to some extent. Because whenever we experience physical or mental hardship, we should remember that in this way we are reducing the burden of our bad karma. Similarly, all the pleasures we experience eat away the balance of good karma from our account.

    Criticism is very necessary for us because it does us good in both ways. That is why Jaganmata is 'Vimarsha Rupini'. Therefore, instead of seeing the critic as an individual, we should learn to accept criticism happily, thinking that Jaganmata is putting us on the right path or taking away our bad karma. To accept it in that way, we should first remember that the things we do are different from what we are. If someone criticizes our work, we will be able to work even better if we realize that it is not us, but the work that has fault and correct the flaw in that work. We should always remember why we are doing that work in the first place and understand that this criticism is a step towards that purpose. We should build stairs with the stones that are thrown at us and climb even higher.

    On the other hand, when we see others as our friends or enemies, as older or younger than us, then we will have a flaw in the way we perceive their criticism. If we ourselves feel guilty that we have done something wrong, then we will have a fixed opinion that whoever looks at us or speaks among themselves is criticizing us and talking badly about us. Therefore, if we first self-criticize, correct our faults, and learn to stop seeing the person in every criticism and see Jaganmata, then that mind will always have peace!