9 September 2014 - QA 2

Gurudev, what thoughts come to your mind when another spiritual leader comes and conducts himself or herself in a disrespectful manner, or gets caught in a disgraceful act?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Compassion and wonder. First of all you wonder how a person with knowledge can do something like that. You know, someone who owns a jewellery shop will not go and steal a few pennies worth of vegetables, or a kilo of bananas or apples. If someone does that you can only wonder, and on the other side feel compassionate. There must be some deep rooted ignorance and you can only be compassionate about the ignorance. There is no point in getting angry at them. It is not going to help anybody.
This man who was climbing has slipped. He has succumbed to his base cravings or aversions. And if they are genuine, they will take punishment on their own. That is called prayaschit (to atone for ones sin). When someone has done a mistake and they realize it, they should punish themselves and not wait for others to punish them. And if they don’t fall into one of these, they shouldn’t even be considered as spiritual leaders. They are misusing the spiritual field for their own selfish gains.