30th Sept., Malke: On the last Sunday of the month of September, at the monthly Sunday gathering, Maharaj Ji spoke in response to a very significant question. “We easily see the mistakes that others commit, we see their faults, but why aren’t we able to see our own faults the easily?” Maharaj Ji appreciated the importance of the question, and spoke at length on this issue. Below we share some points from the ensuing discourse:

  • Only he will be able to see his faults whose desires to know himself better, in other words, who desires to meet the Divine. He, whose focus is on the external world, gaining power and prestige, wealth and property, will not be able to see his faults, but will necessarily find faults in others.
  • There are many categories of beings in the world. And each category has a multitude of them, except one. It is indeed rare to come across a person, who has his eyes on his own faults.
  • Usually, we hide many shortcomings of our character under the blanket of our ego.
  • It is not wrong to see faults in others. In fact a mother who truly loves her child will necessarily see the mistakes that the child commits. But, she does not go about discussing the follies of her child with people, she does not begin to hate the child because of those faults. Her whole focus, out of her love, is to help the child rise above those mistakes. So, whenever we love the other person, it does not mean that we cease to see the faults. But we try our best to help the other rise above those. We do not speak ill of him nor do we hate him. On the other hand when we are attached to someone we do not see their faults.
  • One begins to see his own faults when one comes to love the Divine, inherent in himself. But it is not easy to love the Divine, of which we do not have the experience. In that case at least we should love the saints who are attuned to the Divine. We should love our fellow travelers on the path. We should love our relatives and family.
  • Still, if we do see faults in someone, we should first check our own eyes, clear them, and then with great love address the problems that we see. But, first it is important that we heal ourselves.
  • The test of our love lies in the kind of speech we speak. Our speech should be permeated with love, with the emotion of serving the other, benefitting the other. The other criterion is the eyes. On many occasions we have noticed that someone’s eyes speak louder than their words. However, the way we look at the world around us changes when we transform from within.
  • Sometimes, to protect ourselves, we may need to feign anger too. That is alright. But even beneath that anger should only be a desire of protecting oneself and not malice towards anyone.