In the Samvat year 1876, on the ninth day of the dark hall of the month of Magh, Shreeji Maharaj was seated facing the west, on a wooden bedstead laid in the veranda in front of the hall facing the west in front of the temple of Shree Vasudev Narayan in the Durbar of Dada Khachar in Gadhada. He had put on a white jacket and a white trousers. He had tied a saffron colored rich silken cloth woven with gold and silver threads at the ends. round His waist. He had put a saffron colored headdress made of equally rich cloth on His head. Tassels of flowers were hanging from His headdress and garlands of flowers adorned His neck Saints and devotees from various places had gathered before Him in an assembly.
Then Shreeji Maharaj invited the assembly to ask questions. There upon Muktanand Swami asked, “How is it that one person progresses in the holy fellowship day by day and another one regresses?
Shreeji Maharaj replied. “One who finds faults with elderly saints regresses gradually. And one who appreciates their good qualities progresses gradually. and as a result his devotion to God grows more and more intense everyday. Hence one should never find faults with saints. but appreciate their good qualities. It is only when the saint violates the limits of the five sacred vows prescribed by the Lord for him, the devotee may find fault with the saint. It may happen that the natural temperament of the saint may not be agreeable, but as long as the saint does not violate any of the vows. one should not look to his temperament and should not try to find faults with the saint. neglecting his good qualities. If a person looks to the temperament of a saint and finds faults with him, the person’s own good qualities like knowledge. non-attachment etc. will be dampened. Therefore one should find faults with a saint only when the saint violates any of the sacred vows. One should not find faults with a devotee of God without any reason. In this
way only, one’s own good qualities will grow day by day.
