At Goa Richard (now Radhanath Swami) travelled to Calangute Beach, a haven for Westerners and there he saw the same old scene of western society; rock and roll, men and women kissing, and drugs- the culture that Richard had left behind. Richard was uninterested and walked through the sand along the sea. Although the whole scene appeared alien to Richard now, he still struggled to check himself from criticizing those who sought bodily enjoyment. Richard prayed to be purified of this tendency to think superior to those engaged in bodily pleasures. Richard felt these thoughts were exposing his own arrogance and found it hard to overcome this tendency.
Radhanath Swami reveals that the tendency to criticize others springs from a deep rooted desire to feel superior to others. The root cause of this problem is our lack of interest in developing our dormant relationship with God. Since we are uninterested in God, we seek to compare and criticize others, a low activity that only titillates the senses for some time, but makes the heart bleed in pain.
Radhanath Swami often quotes an interesting story from the Mahabharata, an Indian classic and a magnum opus of struggle for royal power. The story reveals how once Krishna, the Supreme Lord met King Yudhistir and King Duryodhana and asked both of them a different task to do. He told Yudhistir to go out into the kingdom and return only after finding someone less qualified then himself. Lord Krishna then asked Duryodhana to go out and find at least one person more qualified than himself. Both returned unsuccessful. The story exposed Duryodhana’s pride and arrogance in thinking that he was better than all. The incident also reveals King Yudhistir’s humility and ability to see everyone as superior to himself. Through this incident the Lord is teaching us that the more we are closer to our original true, God conscious nature, the more we have humility and freedom from seeing faults in others. And the further we are from our original nature, the more we see faults in others. Richard during this phase of his life was seeking to come closer to his true nature and hence desperately wanted to get out of this tendency to see himself as superior to others. This is an inspiring incident which teaches us the need to struggle and abandon this vicious negativity within our hearts.
Besides our desire to feel superior to others, some other motivations for criticism are seeking revenge at someone who has hurt us, asserting our position or way as the best or only way, and avoiding a honest introspection of our own shortcomings. To accept our negative qualities calls upon courage and honesty. Richard did that during this episode at Goa and to the extent we can also accept our faults honestly, we also become dear to God. God then gives us the strength to overcome these negative forces.
Radhanath Swami assures that through constant prayers and steady spiritual practices we can overcome our impurities in general, and the tendency to find faults in particular.
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Founder-acharya of the International Society For Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)
“Go to India” a sweet but commanding voice; spoke up in the heart of young Richard (later Radhanath Swami) who was immersed in meditation, his search for meaning in life has brought him to the Isle of Crete. Today he was ordered to go to India. Born and raised in the middle class suburbs of Chicago, Radhanath swami grew up in the 1950’s and 60’s era when popular musicians protested war, prejudice and social injustice. Radhanath swami would listen to these songs again and again, but their lyrics referring to God stirred his soul. Peter, Paul and Mary- the folk trio from Greenswich village sang in their debut album
“Early in the morning, about the break of day
I ask the Lord, to help me find my way”
This simple prayer was to guide Radhanath swami in the coming years of his life........
Excellent analogy mentioned to become humble. All glories to HH Radhanatha Swami Maharaja.
View CommentYes, it takes real courage and honesty to admit one’s own shortcomings.
View CommentRadhanath Swami reveals that the tendency to criticize others springs from a deep rooted desire to feel superior to others. Very true! It’s very difficult to get out of this habit of criticizing others.
View CommentThank u Maharaj for this wonderful instruction through which constantly we should endeavor to offer our sincere love and prayers to the supreme lord to come out of such deep routed habit of criticizing others.
View CommentVery deeply motivating. Subtle but important consideration for those who want to advance in spiritual life.
View CommentThank you Radhanath Maharaja for sharing this article.
“Radhanath Swami reveals that the tendency to criticize others springs from a deep rooted desire to feel superior to others.”
Its very obvious that since we are envious towards the childrens of the Lord, he certianly be disappointed, but as Radhanath Swami says by since Introspection and Prayers we can overcome these deep rooted tendecy to criticize….
View Commentwow. what an introspection. criticizing others is so spontaneous for us. but we never check it. radhanath swami maharaj reveals how we should have constant introspection.
View CommentI can introspect in my own self… this article depicts reality of our hearts…!
View CommentA very important instruction from Radhanath Swami’s life. Thank you for sharing.
View Commentsimply superb example given by maharaj.
View CommentVery Nice Article..It requires genuine humility to give up this tendency of Fault finding..
View CommentThank you
Very wonderful article. The reason for why we criticize is the essence that we are uninterested in God and always want to feel superior to others.
View Commentvery deep and true.Thank you for sharing.
View CommentThank you for providing us a cure to our superiority complex, which is in fact is a major illnes. Thank you Swamiji.
View CommentNice one.
View CommentThank you so much for the wonderful explanation and an incident from Mahabharatam that we can relate to.
View CommentThank you Maharaj for your example which truly inspires me in my daily struggle against this fault finding tendency.
View CommentVery inspirational article…..infact the whole journey of Swamiji has been so inspirational…thanks for sharing it with us
View CommentWonderful explanation.
View CommentSuch a profound explanation!
View Commentwhat a fantastic realization.
View Commentwonderful article.
View CommentRadhanth swami brings out the essence through perfect pastimes from scriptures.Thanks for this article by Radhanth swami.
View CommentIt is very difficult to implement such valuable things which brings us closer to God. Thank you Maharaj for giving us an example to become humble. HB
View CommentRadhanath swami leads us through his own example. Wonderful realizations
View CommentRadhanath swami has shared here a wonderful realisation. Sincere prayers have a tremendous power.
View CommentI pray to God that i can learn and implement something from this article.
View CommentThank you Radhanath Swami for sharing these deep and hard-earned realizations with us, free of cost!
View CommentThank you Radhanath Swami Maharaj
View CommentThe habit of criticizing other stems from our feeling of wanting to be superior, or take revenge or to cover up our own shortcomings, etc. It’s a very difficult habit to get rid off and we can only pray for the mercy of the Lord to help,us to overcome this fault.
View CommentRadhanath Swami reveals that the tendency to criticize others springs from a deep rooted desire to feel superior to others. The root cause of this problem is our lack of interest in developing our dormant relationship with God. Since we are uninterested in God, we seek to compare and criticize others, a low activity that only titillates the senses for some time, but makes the heart bleed in pain -such revealing words! Hope we can overcome this tendency to criticize others.
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