19800826 The Most Dangerous Offense in Bhakti - Tokyo, Japan #JayapatakaSwamiArchives

There are 10 kinds of offenses to the Holy Name. And these offenses. The first one, of course, is to blaspheme the devotees who have dedicated their lives for propagating the Holy Name of the Lord. That anyone who has dedicated his or her life to propagating the glories of Ka's Name should be understood as on the transcendental platform. Of course, we may see some kind of defect with our materialistic vision. But we should not see with materialistic vision. We should see the good activities that a person is doing. Especially someone who is completely dedicated. We should never speak ill of that person. Nor we should hear anything which is blaspheming or criticism of that person. Which is based upon some ill motivation or which is incorrect. This is very dangerous. Just like it is explained that the spiritual master, he is not necessarily anyone, see? Very, very great. But he is like a mailman. He delivers the message of Ka. And by delivering the message purely without changing the content, that is perfection. And by following that message, one can attain to the full mercy of Lord Ka. So Ka looks upon his devotees who have dedicated their lives with great affection in reciprocation of their surrender to Him. So if one offends such a devotee, then naturally the Holy Name becomes very displeased with that action. Even other Godbrothers, God sisters see, who are trying to preach the glories of the Holy Name. They may not be so advanced, but still we should not take them for granted. Or think that they are also not dear to the Holy Name. We should be careful about useless criticism of any devotee trying to spread the glories of the Holy Name. And especially those who are sent engaged. This is known as the mad elephant offense. If we participate in blaspheming devotees, then whatever advancement, whatever growth in our bhakti lota plant, our creeper of devotion that gets smashed. Just like when a mad elephant goes into a banana orchard. And just smashes it under his feet with his body. There's nothing left of that orchard. They cannot stand before the man elephant like that. Our creeper may be making some advancement. But as soon as we start to blaspheme, you see pure devotees, devotees who have dedicated their life to preaching the Holy Name. Then that offense can smash our creeper down. This is very important to avoid this at all cost.