From the Gospel – 22

A NEIGHBOUR: "Why does a man have sinful tendencies?"

MASTER: "In God's creation there are all sorts of things. He has created bad men as well as good men. It is He who gives us good tendencies, and it is He again who gives us evil tendencies."

NEIGHBOUR: "In that case we aren't responsible for our sinful actions, are we?"

MASTER: "Sin begets its own result. This is God's law. Won't you burn your tongue if you chew a chili? In his youth Mathur led a rather fast life; so he suffered from various diseases before his death.

One may not realize this in youth. I have looked into the hearth in the kitchen of the Kāli temple when logs are being burnt. At first the wet wood burns rather well. It doesn't seem then that it contains much moisture. But when the wood is sufficiently burnt, all the moisture runs back to one end. At last water squirts from the fuel and puts out the fire.

So, one should be careful about anger, passion, and greed. Take, for instance, the case of Hanuman. In a fit of anger he burnt Ceylon. At last he remembered that Sita was living in the aśoka grove. Then he began to tremble lest the fire should injure her."

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Editor’s note: As mentioned in Part 21, holy company will curb the evil or sinful tendencies that crop up in our mind from time to time, similar to the mahut (driver of an elephant) giving a blow to the elephant with the iron goad, the moment it stretches out its trunk to eat a plantain-tree in a neighbour's garden.