Editorial
On Finding Faults
Finding Faults
Mother Sri Sarada Devi said: “If you want peace of mind, do not find faults with others.” This has become sort of a mantra and many people read this teaching often if not daily. It’s good to practice this marvellous teaching in daily lives for peace.
Some parents have doubts: “Should I or should I not find fault with my little son or daughter?” Similarly teachers, employers and others have doubts. “Should we see the faults of our students or should we not? Should we be blind to the faults made by our employees?”
Sri Ramakrishna’s Mahut story comes to our rescue here also. There was a guru who told his disciples that all beings are nothing but God in different forms. It’s all Narayana Himself in countless appearances. One of the disciples took this instruction too literally. One day he was in the forest and saw an angry elephant rushing towards him. There was a mahut sitting on top of the elephant. That mahut was shouting at the top of his voice: “This is a mad elephant. Get out of its way.” The disciple shouted back: “Oh come on! Our teacher has taught us that every being is Narayana. So this elephant too is Narayana.” And the disciple was lifted by the elephant and thrown away.
The disciple returned to the guru with bruises and wept. The guru said: “It’s indeed true that I told you that all beings are Narayana Himself in numerous forms. But why did you forget that the mahut on the elephant was also Narayana? That Narayana was shouting a warning but you did not heed.”
Narayana has come in the form of a child in your family, a student in your school, an employee in your company. It’s your duty to see that the child or student learns and grows. It’s your duty to make him or her develop well and point out the mistakes he or she makes.
However, there are some of us who are habitual fault-finders. As they used to say in ancient times, the mother-in-law mentalities. We with such minds see darkness in milk, midnight during a sunny afternoon, and so on. We are unhappy if we can’t find faults or criticize someone.
Social media is filled with such minds. We may see how an innocent person, working day and night for the good of all is targeted for his dress, his talk, his food, his words, his actions: inf act everything is criticized. It’s as if the duty of some to just keep finding faults where there are none.
Such people may think they are successful and famous. But they are miserable. They have bad health, their minds are polluted, their hearts are venomous. Let alone thinking of God, they cannot think a good thought for the betterment of others. They are already venomous snakes within, only waiting for the body to change.
That’s the reason Mother Sri Sarada Devi taught us not to find faults. There is a difference between making a crooked piece of metal straight and criticizing a perfectly straight metal as crooked.
It’s the wrong understanding of teachings that have caused immense problems in the world since the beginning of time.
May Sri Ramakrishna guide us all towards the supreme Light. This is the eternal prayer of all of us.
Swami Sunirmalananda