16.02 – When we best serve Krishna by keeping out of his business

Faultfinding comes easy for most of us; it gives a much-craved boost to our false ego by making us feel superior to the faulty.

And learning Gita wisdom may give a further fillip to our faultfinding mentality. Once we know the Gita’s moral standards, we can easily see how pitifully short almost everyone falls of those standards.

Then why does the Bhagavad-gita (16.02) declare aversion to fault-finding (apaishnuam) to be a godly quality worth cultivating? When faults do exist and we have the vision to find them, why shouldn’t we find faults?

Because otherwise we may poke our nose into that which is not our business – that which is Krishna’s business.

Krishna has an individual, personal and eternal relationship with everyone. He cares for them far more than we ever can. And he knows how best to help them, how to draw them closer to him for their eternal well-being. All this is Krishna’s business.

Krishna does his business primarily by revealing his all-attractiveness. By attracting people to him through his various manifestations such as Deities, holy names and scriptures, Krishna enables them to break free of their impurities that breed faults and to unlock their pure spiritual nature that fosters virtues.

However, if we indulge in faultfinding, we come off to others as self-righteous pedants. We cause people to stay away not just from us but also from Krishna. Why? Because people seeing us as representatives of Krishna infer mistakenly that our devotion to Krishna has made us so hypercritical.

Only when we are entrusted the responsibility of correcting others as their spiritual guides and are trained to do so compassionately and competently can we participate in Krishna’s plan to attract others. Till then, we can best serve Krishna by staying out of his business.

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The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: …aversion to faultfinding… — these transcendental qualities, O son of Bharata, belong to godly men endowed with divine nature.