The scriptures reveal:
वरं हुतवहज्वालापञ्जरान्तर्व्यवस्थितिः।
न शौरिचिन्ताविमुखजनसंवासवैशसम्॥Varaṁ hutavaha-jvālā-paṇjarāntar-vyavasthitiḥ.
Na śhauri-chintā-vimukhajan-saṁvāsavaiśhasam.- Katyayana Samhita, Shree Chaitanya Charitamrita: Madhya-leela 22.91
According to the scriptures if you have, on the one hand, a person who speaks ill of others, of the scriptures, of God-realized souls, and so on, and on the other hand, you have a cage on fire - you should choose the latter. The scriptures say it is better to burn in that raging fire than to associate with an individual who finds faults with Divine personalities.
If you associate with such a person, it is said that your spiritual downfall is certain; it’s guaranteed. And furthermore, it is said that even a thousand years of chanting God’s name does not have as great an effect as two minutes of listening to an individual speaking ill of Divine souls.
So, because of this bad habit of looking at the faults of others, we stoop so far down as to listen to someone talking ill of God-realized souls. The scriptures say that some of us, many of us, enjoy listening to the faults of others. But the obstacle, the problem in that, is that if we are looking at the faults of worldly people today, tomorrow we will find faults with Saintly souls as well.
So the Ramayan says:
सुनु सुरेस रघुनाथ सुभाऊ। निज अपराध रिसाहिं न काऊ॥
जो अपराधु भगत कर करई। राम रोष पावक सो जरई॥Sunu sures Raghunāth subhā-ū, nij aparādh risāhiṁ na kā-ū.
Jo aparādhu bhagat kar kara-ī, Rām roṣh pāvak so jara-i.- Ramcharitmanas: Ayodhya kand 218
“He who listens to someone insulting Saintly souls cannot be saved from the wrath of the Lord, from God’s anger.”
It is such a severe offense (called) nāmāparādh (an offense against the Divine name).
So, some of the ‘do’s’ are that we should always look at our own faults and never at the faults of others. For an aspirant, it is said that he must practice ātma-nirīkṣhaṇ (आत्म-निरीक्षण - self-analysis, self-examination, self-observation, and introspection), which means self-analysis, self-examination, self-observation, and introspection.
For instance, even at home, before going to sleep at night, spend five minutes looking at your own faults.
“Today I made this mistake! Today I looked at the faults of others. I made this mistake today, but tomorrow I will not repeat the same mistake!”
Take a vow to improve yourself. Always examine yourself. And if we do, we will continue to progress, to continue to move forward on our path of spirituality. You see, we must always realize ourselves to be fallen and humble in front of God. And yet, the scriptures also say that we should not become disappointed because we are so fallen.
We should also be aware of the fact of the tattva-gyān (knowledge of the fundamental truth) that Shree Krishna, our beloved Lord, loves the fallen souls. This is how He attained the title of Patit-pāvan (the purifier and deliverer of the fallen). ‘Patit’ means ‘fallen, sinner’, and ‘pāvan’ means ‘one who accepts the fallen, one who loves the fallen souls’.
