Thieves in Disguise

When younger, summer holidays for me meant lots of reading. I would clean out my desk and settle down with just about any book that caught my eye. One particular summer I remember pasting two quotations, one from the Thirukural  which went something like "One may smile and smile but be no friend, for the heart has to smile with the face," and the other, a quote by William Penn, written in a letter to his wife and children

"Avoid flatterers; for they are thieves in disguise. Their praise is costly, designing to get by those they bespeak. They are the worst of creatures; they lie to flatter and flatter to cheat, and, which is worse, if you believe them, you cheat yourselves most dangerously. But the virtuous-though poor-love, cherish, and prefer. Remember David, who asking the Lord, "Who shall abide in Thy tabernacle; who shall dwell in Thy holy hill?" answers, "He that walks uprightly, works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart; in whose eyes the vile person is condemned, but honors them who fears the Lord."

When I did paste the quotes I can say that I did not fully understand the import of the words, especially the second one. It has taken me 15 years to understand and is a very valuable quote to remember and progress in devotional life.While meditating on the verse spoken by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu everyday, the one recorded in Padyavali by Srila Rupa Goswami, one fine day the purport of William Penn's words struck me.In devotional life false ego is considered as one of the 6 enemies that binds us to our material identity.Humility and acceptance of our minuscule position in relationship to Krishna frees us from this false ego, removes our pride and fills our heart with love for the Lord and His devotees. A devotee is said to be adorned with very valuable qualities like humility,pridelessness and tolerance referred to as Sadhu Bhusana or Ornaments which he/she has to safeguard with their heart and soul. Devotees often receive praise for some service which they do like cooking tasty prasadam, dressing the deities beautifully etc..and the praise may be genuine or flattery, but here is Mayadevi testing the devotee as to what their reaction should be. Our teachers say that one has to accept the praise but pass it on to their own Guru or to the Guru parampara, because in reality we cannot function without their mercy, so They are the rightful recipents of any praise. On the contrary if we succumb to the praise and start thinking ourselves the doer then Mayadevi has achieved the desired goal, where the flatterer is robbing us of our ornamnents of humility, pridelessnes and tolerance. Beware, they are but thieves in disguise..Robbed of our ornaments one by one we become poorer and poorer in spiritual life so much so, that we may totally regress into a state of envy of Krishna and His devotee, returning to our starting point in the material tabernacle. Spiritual life is like a game of snakes and ladders where one has to always be cautions of landing on the head of the snake of envy and sliding down to its tail. The only thief that we can encourage to steal is the supreme butter thief. I pray that one day he steals my heart and makes it firmly situated at His Lotus feet..

naham vipro na ca nara-patir napi vaisyo na sudro

naham varni na ca grha-patir no vana-stho yatir va

kintu prodyan nikhila-paramananda purnamrtabdher

gopi-bhartuh pada-kamalayor dasa-dasanudasah

“I am not a brāhmaṇa, I am not a kṣatriya, I am not a vaiśya or a śūdra. Nor am I a brahmacārī, a householder, a vānaprastha or a sannyāsī. I identify Myself only as the servant of the servant of the servant of the lotus feet of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the maintainer of the gopis. He is like an ocean of nectar, and He is the cause of universal transcendental bliss. He is always existing with brilliance.” CC- Madhya 13.80

Srila Rupa Goswami’s Padyavali, verse 74