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I am the Soul
the second and the third at yet other times. They would always keep thinking up new ideas in competition.
Once one of them got a bright idea and on a fine morning he put up a sign board on his shop which read - 'The Best Tailor in France'. When the other two tailors reached their shops in due course, they noticed the board and were jealous. "Alas! He has become the best, now what? How can our business run?" The second fellow found a solution the next day. He put up a board too - 'The Best Tailor in Paris'. Now seeing this the third one turned green with jealousy. "Where do I stand now? Who will turn towards my shop?" His mind was busy with this problem and he thought, "The first one is the best in France, the second says he is best in Paris. I should be one up on them." So the next morning he too put up a board in beautiful letters - "The Best Tailor on this Street". He had surpassed the other two.
Brothers, Think! What sort of thinking worked here? You may say, "Mahastaiji! This is the way in business. Otherwise you cannot lead." Okay, let's not talk about business. Let me ask you, if we could put up such boards, what would we do?
Over whom and how many would we try to prove ourselves better? Even now, wherever we go, there amidst all those present, we try to prove ourselves better than others; that 'all the rest are okay, but none like me'. Well, in whatever field you are interested, wherever you think you are somebody, don't you believe you are the best?
In the field of Dharma too, it is the same story. Some say, 'nobody can do the way we do the rituals'. Some others say, 'nobody is as strict with the vows as we are'. Yet others say, 'The way we express devotion is unparalleled. Ah! None can generate the feelings that we do in our Bhakti'. Ridiculous! Who are you to compare feelings? Can you read others' thoughts? Thoughts are an internal thing, not something that can be measured from outside.
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