Vaishnavas Are Like Swans

By Bhakti Charu Swami

A Vaishnava does not want to criticize anyone. In Vrindavan, for example, there was one very, very exalted Vaishnava.

One day there was a mahotsava, a festival. Many people were invited. This devotee noticed that one Vaishnava was not there, so he asked what had happened to him.

Someone said that he had done this and that, and so they had not invited him. This very senior Vaishnava got up and started to walk toward the door. When asked why he was leaving, he said: "For such a small fault you have rejected him, but you do not know all the faults that I have. I know that if you were to find out about them, you would reject me as well. Before that happens, I decided to leave."

That is the mood of a Vaishnava. He is as humble as a blade of grass. If we want to become Vaishnavas, we should not find faults in others. Those who are in management have the thankless task of identifying problems and trying to rectify them. We should leave that work to them.

Materialistic people are gossip mongers. They say, "He did this, he did that." All their joy is derived from speaking badly about others. When we speak badly about someone, we are actually taking on his bad karma. Before speaking ill of someone, be aware of that fact. You are actually relieving him of his bad karma and accepting it yourself. You are causing great injury to your own spiritual life. Mahaprabhu told Raghunatha Dasa Goswami not to indulge in mundane discussion. Mundane discussion means speaking badly about others, backbiting. This fault-finding and backbiting causes the heart to shrink, whereas Krishna consciousness is the process that expands it.

A Vaishnava derives joy by glorifying devotees. Devotees are the reservoir of good qualities. If out of hundreds of good qualities someone displays one bad quality, it should not be magnified. Make it a point to create a very beautiful atmosphere by glorifying others. That is what Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu wanted. Desiring no respect, glorification, or adoration for ourselves, we should offer all respect, glorification, and adoration to the Vaishnavas: "See how wonderfully he is rendering his service. He has offered himself to Srila Prabhupada." That is how we should see every Vaishnava, and what to speak of a very senior devotee.

In this way, a very beautiful atmosphere is created. Vaishnavas are like swans. They live in a very clean lake. Crows live wherever there is garbage. This becomes very obvious in Calcutta in the morning. When we lived there, I would sometimes chant on the rooftop. I would see that there were crows and there were pigeons. The pigeons would fly to the rooftops, people would throw grains, and the pigeons would take them. But no crows would come. They would simply gravitate toward the garbage.

Source: https://www.dandavats.com/?p=50810


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