Criticism

1. Do not recognize wickedness in others. Wickedness is ignorance, weakness. What is the good of telling people they are weak? Criticism and destruction are of no avail. We must give them something higher; tell them of their own glorious nature, their birthright.

2. Be positive; do not criticise others. Give your message, teach what you have to teach, and there stop.

3. This is the message of Shri Ramakrishna to the modern world: Do not care for doctrines, do not care for dogmas, or sects, or churches, or temples; they count for little compared with the essence of existence in each man, which is spirituality; and the more this is developed in a man, the more powerful is he for good. Earn that first, acquire that, and criticise no one, for all doctrines and creeds have some good in them. Show by your lives that religion does not mean words, or names, or sects, but that it means spiritual realization. Only those can understand who have felt. Only those who have attained to spirituality can communicate it to others, can be great teachers of Mankind. They alone are the powers of light.

4. Do not criticize others, for all doctrines and all dogmas are good; but show them by your lives that religion is no matter of books and beliefs, but of spiritual realization.

Only those who have seen it will understand this; but such spirituality can be given to others, even though they be unconscious of the gift.

Only those who have attained to this power are amongst the great teachers of mankind. They are the powers of light.

5. It is criticising each other that is at the root of all mischief. That is the chief factor in breaking down organizations.