Maharaj says, "He appears to be the best devotee of all." But if once... That means you cannot say based on that alone. The five vows must be present in a Sadhu, 100%. But sometimes, Maharaj says regarding the five vows, "He may be observing the vows better than anyone else." And if he is, he might be like Kal, Ravana, or Rahu. How can that be? And there are many such people in the Sampraday. They are very strict in rules and dharma dharma 1) Universal law or principle that 'sustains' or 'upholds' the entire world. Righteousness, morality, religion, Tap to open in glossary → . And yet, they misguide everyone. That does not mean that the five vows are not needed. But the five vows must be 100% present in him. But sometimes, making a decision based solely on that does not work. Maharaj says, "He appears to be the best devotee of all, but if once some harsh words are spoken to him, he does not forget them as long as he lives. If he is slightly offended, he harbors malice a hundred thousand times more than the service he had previously rendered to the Sadhu. Even then, he does not feel satisfied in his mind." He wants to take revenge. Until he has taken full revenge. In Vachanamrut Gadhada Last Section 14, and again in Vachanamrut Loya Section 6, it is said that one may observe the vows out of hypocrisy. When vows are observed out of hypocrisy, even then, the vows are visible. But those cannot be called true. But those others are true. They are true vows. There is humility in them. Yes. Then why would he harbor malice? Even if the vows are true, sometimes humility may not be present; practically, this is how it is. Although, since it is written in the scriptures, that other thing is not mentioned there at all. But practically, sometimes it does happen. It is like that. He may not have the realization. What? He may not have the realization of God's devotee or He may not have that realization, but he does not have the understanding of his greatness. Vows, many times, Maharaj says, have to be observed for various purposes. If I want to get ahead of you, then also it becomes compulsory for me to observe the vows. So, I might be observing the vows with that purpose. And if I want to please God, and I observe the vows with that purpose, then it can be said that there is humility in it. But if it is with the purpose of getting ahead, then it is not there. Humility is not there, and the vows are better than the other person's. Humility itself is the vow. What? Humility itself is the vow. So they would demonstrate it like this. Its demonstration would happen. But those are not true vows. That is why Maharaj said, "Nirmatsarāṇāṁ satāṁ." It is said so in the Bhagavatam. "Dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra paramo nirmatsarāṇāṁ satāṁ." In this Bhagavatam, now we shall describe the dharma dharma 1) Universal law or principle that 'sustains' or 'upholds' the entire world. Righteousness, morality, religion, Tap to open in glossary → of saints who are free from jealousy (nirmatsar). "Dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra paramo nirmatsarāṇāṁ satāṁ." So, why was only one attribute, 'nirmatsar' (free from jealousy), mentioned? There are 30 attributes of a saintly person, as mentioned in the Bhagavatam itself. So why was only one mentioned, "We here of the nirmatsar sadhu..." "We shall describe the dharma dharma 1) Universal law or principle that 'sustains' or 'upholds' the entire world. Righteousness, morality, religion, Tap to open in glossary → of compassionate sadhus," was not said. Otherwise, compassionate and free from anger are the first ones. Right? "We shall describe the dharma dharma 1) Universal law or principle that 'sustains' or 'upholds' the entire world. Righteousness, morality, religion, Tap to open in glossary → of truthful sadhus," was not said. There are 39 attributes of his. So nirmatsar is... Our nirmatsar also must be coming way behind. And perhaps whether it is in that list or not, is also not well known. Even then, it is said in the Bhagavatam, "We shall describe the dharma dharma 1) Universal law or principle that 'sustains' or 'upholds' the entire world. Righteousness, morality, religion, Tap to open in glossary → of nirmatsar saints." Why? Because jealousy (matsar matsar Jealousy of objects. Jealousy that arises in a person when someone else has a better object or item than himself. [Kãriyãni – 6]. Tap to open in glossary → ) is the only vice that makes one perform all those positive practices. Right? All positive practices. Right? It makes one perform only positive practices. He is compelled to perform positive practices. Compulsorily. Duryodhana was jealous of Yudhishthira, thinking, "Let me appear better than him." That is called jealousy (matsar matsar Jealousy of objects. Jealousy that arises in a person when someone else has a better object or item than himself. [Kãriyãni – 6]. Tap to open in glossary → ). Not being able to tolerate someone's progress is jealousy. So Duryodhana felt the need to do double of whatever good practices Yudhishthira was doing. If Yudhishthira fed 100 Brahmins, Duryodhana would say, "I will feed 200." If Yudhishthira performed sacrifices until 12 o'clock, "I will continue until 5 o'clock." Yes or no? All those auspicious practices became compulsory for Duryodhana. And yet, saintliness did not enter Duryodhana. Double the practice, and still no saintliness. Why? It is the only vice that makes one practice 38 out of the remaining 39 attributes. And yet, it does not let even a trace of those 38 attributes touch him. Hence, the power of being free from jealousy. So, vows can be like that. Sometimes they can be. So if someone clings to it with trust, then sometimes the trusted buffalo gives birth to a male calf. Sometimes it does not yield milk. AI translation of the Gujarati transcript above, produced in the same pass that transcribed the audio, one English segment per Gujarati segment. Devotional and technical terms with no precise English equivalent (kirtan, satsang, vasana, samskara, and similar) are kept as their plain transliteration rather than force-translated. Not human-proofread., AI-translated, unverified · Source details