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Source: The Hindu (http://www.hinduonnet.com)

 

One should help only deserving persons

 

CHENNAI, AUG. 22. The amount of toil, care and time taken by a

group of persons to lift a stone idol over a gradient and instal

it on the top of a hillock can be imagined only by all those who

are involved in this stupendous task. But even a little amount of

callousness will result in the idol slipping out of control and

rolling down the slope and ultimately being reduced to rubble.

This analogy is generally applied in the case of those who

sincerely yearn to resort to the path of religion.

 

The one easy method to reform themselves is to obtain the company

of godly souls, study their routine and adopt the methods they

have shown to reach the goal of salvation. These pious men will

always be meditating on God, though they may lead life here as

anyone else and exert their influence on all others who come to

them, as humble and good. The chief characteristic of these men

is their magnanimity to overlook the faults of those who seek

their help. Hence, those who wish to be in the company of such

chosen divine souls should be equally careful and go along with

them and they will stand to gain. The warning to be administered

in general to people is that when they seek the guidance of such

religious leaders, they should be ready to shed all their wicked

thoughts. Otherwise, even when amongst such guides, if a person

misbehaves or commits a sin, he would reap the consequences.

 

Sri Sakatapuram Sankaracharya, in a discourse, illustrated this

by referring to the story of a demon-king who wanted to become a

``supreme'' force by obtaining a boon that on whomsoever's head

he placed his hand, the incumbent should die. He tested whether

the boon so received was genuine, and so made Siva, who granted

the boon as the victim. Ultimately Vishnu destroyed the arrogant

demon by making him keep his hand on his own head.

 

Also, to show how one should not provide assistance to

undeserving and ungrateful persons, a story is told of a saintly

man who while taking bath in a river saved a scorpion and made it

land safe on the bank but the very next moment, it stung him

stating that to do so was its very nature. Likewise, a sage

trained a cat to get rid of the rat menace, a dog to protect him

from the cat and ultimately a tiger to keep off other wild beasts

from entering his hermitage, but the ferocious animal tried to

devour him. Scriptural literature clearly warn us to refrain from

having friendship with those who are sure to turn ungrateful or

having derived power with our help, attempt to harm us.

 

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