17th February 2000
Chapter 1 - The You That You Want To Change
Day 12 - Mistakes
Blessed are those who do not see a mistake as a mistake. It is hard not to see your own mistake. Outwardly you may justify yourself or try to prove your innocence to someone else, but a mistake pricks the conscience. Do not justify yourself. Instead, feel the prick of the mistake. That very pinch will take you out of the mistake.
A mistake is something that brings misery to you in the long run. So why would someone knowingly commit a mistake? When you point out a mistake to someone, do you see him separate from you or do you make him feel a part of you? Do your words make him more stressed or do they create more awareness in him?
Often you do not point out someone’s mistake when it is required but not pointing out a mistake, with due consideration to time and place is also a mistake. When you make a new mistake, it is not a mistake. Instead, you have learned a valuable lesson. But when you keep doing it over and over again, that is a big mistake.
A mistake simply means you have ‘missed taking’ a lesson that has come your way. Do not lament over your mistake. Just learn a lesson from it. You will not be judged by your mistakes but by your virtues. Mistakes are of the earth. Virtues are of the Divine.
The fool keeps making the same mistakes again and again and never learns from them. Wise is the one who learns only from his own mistakes. Wisest is the one who learns from another’s mistakes. Once somebody made a mistake and Gurudev asked him, “What punishment can I give you?”
The person replied, “Do not punish me, Gurudev, I won’t make the mistake again”. After some time, Gurudev asked another person who had made a mistake, “And what punishment can I give you?” With a bright smile he replied, “Any punishment, Gurudev?”
At this Gurudev turned to the rest of us with a smile and said, “See, he is so confident of my love for him that he is not afraid of any punishment”. Where there is love, there is no fear. Do not be afraid of being punished by God. Trust in the love that He has for you.
