RELIGIOUS TEACHERS—FALSE AND TRUE - PITFALLS OF TEACHERSHIP

[Pitfalls of teachership—True teachers] PITFALLS OF TEACHERSHIP

Do you, O preacher, carry the badge of authority? The humblest servant of the king, authorised by him, is heard with awe and respect, and can quell a riot by showing his badge; so must you, O preacher, first, obtain your commission and inspiration from God Himself. So long as you do not have this badge of Divine inspiration, you may preach all your life, but it will be mere waste of breath.

None has patience or desire to dive deep into Divine love. None cares for discrimination and dispassion for worldly things (Viveka and Vairagya), or for devotional practices (Sadhana). On the other hand, all will rush to lecture and to teach with only a bit of book-learning. Strange indeed ! To teach others is the most difficult of tasks. He alone can teach, who gets commission from God after having realised Him.

What do you think of the man who is a good orator and preacher, but whose spiritual powers are undeveloped ? He is like the person who squanders another s property entrusted to him. He can easily advise others, for it costs him nothing since the ideas he expresses are not his own but borrowed.

A well-known speaker was lecturing once in a Harisabha (religious association). In the course of his speech he said, " The Lord is totally devoid of Rasa (sweetness) ; we must make Him sweet by lending to Him the sweetness of our own nature. By Rasa he meant love and other divine attributes. When I heard this, I was reminded of the boy who said that his mother s brother had many horses, and sought to convince his hearers by explaining that they occupied a whole cowshed. Of course, the intelligent could at once see that cowsheds are not meant for horses, that the youngster was telling a lie, and that he had no experience or knowledge of horses.

To say that God is devoid of Rasa was an absurdity, which proved that the speaker was totally ignorant of what he was saying. He had never realised the Supreme Being, Who is the very fountain of eternal love, wisdom and joy.

What is your opinion about the method employed by present-day religious preachers? It is like inviting a hundred persons to a dinner with food enough only for one. It is only pretending to be a great religious teacher with a small stock of spiritual experience.

First install God in the temple of your heart; first realise Him. Speeches, lectures and the rest may be taken up after you have seen God, not before. People talk glibly of God and Brahman, while they are attached to the things of the world. What does all this amount to ? Mere blowing of the conch (Sankha) for Divine Service without God to worship within the temple.

One day as I was going through Panchavati, I heard the frightful. croaking of a frog. I guessed it must have been caught by a snake. When after a long time I was returning that way, I again heard the same noise. Peeping through the bushes, I saw a water snake with a frog in its mouth. It could neither swallow it, nor let it go, and there was no end td the agony of the frog. Then I thought, " Well, had it been the victim of a cobra, it would have been silenced for ever after three croaks at the most (and then there would have been no more suffering either for the frog or the snake). But here the snake's suffering is almost equal to the frogs." So if an unenlightened man takes upon himself in his foolhardiness the responsibility of saving another, there is no end to the misery of both. Neither does the ego of the disciple vanish, nor are his worldly ties cut asunder. If the disciple comes under the influence of an unworthy teacher, he never gets liberation. But under a competent teacher the egotism of the Jiva perishes with three croaks."

There was a professional preacher who could rouse strong devotional feelings in the hearts of his hearers whenever he delivered religious discourses; but personally he was not a man of character. Pained at the kind of life he led, I asked him one day how it was that he moved so many hearts to devotion, while he himself lived such an unworthy life. The man bowed and said, " Yes, Sir, thebroom though a contemptible thing, removes the dust and dirt on the floor and the street!" Of course I could not answer him.¹

¹ This need not be taken as a contradiction of the main theme of this chapter. For the effect which preaching of this type produces is temporary and is unlike the permanent change which the words of men of true spiritual realisation produce in their disciples.