Some are Good and Some are Bad

In this creation of God there is a variety of things; men , animals, trees, plants. Among the animals some are good, some are bad. There are ferocious animals like tiger. Some trees bear fruit as sweet as nectar and some fruit that is poisonous. Likewise, among human being, there are good and wicked, there are holy and unholy. There are some devoted to god and some attached to the world.

“Men may be divided in four classes: those bound by fetters of the world, the seekers after liberation, the liberated and the ever-free.”

1. “Among the ever free we may count sages such as Narada. They live in the world for the good of others, to teach men spiritual truth.”
2. “Those in bondage are sunk in worldliness and forgetfull of God. Not even by mistake do they think of God.”
3. “The seekers after liberation want to free themselves from the attachment to the world. Some of them succeed and some don’t.
4. “Liberated souls, such Sadhus and Mahatmas, are not entangled in this world, in “woman & gold”. Their minds are free from worldliness. Besides, they always meditate on the Lotus feet of God.”

Suppose a net has been cast into a lake to catch fish. Some fish are clever that they are never caught in the net. They are like the ever-free. But most of the fish are entangled in the net. Some of them try to free themselves from it, and they are like those who seek liberation. But not all the fish that struggle succeed. A very few do jump out of the net, making a big splash in the water. Then the fisherman shout, “Look ! there goes a big one! But most of the fish caught in the net can not escape, nor do they make any effort to get out, on the contrary they burrow deep into the mud with the net in their mouth and lie there quietly, thinking. “We need not fear anymore, we are quite safe here.’ But the poor things do not know that fishermen will drag them out with the net. These are like the men bound to the world.

” The bound souls are tied to the world by the fetters of ‘woman & gold’ They are bound hand and foot. Thinking that ‘woman & gold’ would make them happy and give them security, they do not realize that it will lead them to annihilation. When a man thus bound to the world is about to die, his wife asks, ‘You are about to go, But what have you done for me? Again such is the attachment to the things in this world that, when he see the lamp burning brightly, he says: ‘Dim the light. Too much oil is being used.’ And he is on his death-bed!.

“The bound soul never think of God. If they get any leisure they indulge in idle gossip and foolish talk, or they engage in fruitless work. If you ask one of them the reason, he answers, ‘Oh, I can not sit still, so I am making a hedge.’ When time hangs heavy on their hands they perhaps start playing cards.