In New York there was a Hindu writer who couldn’t stand anyone else. He was always fighting with somebody. One day he became quarrelsome with me. He started by arguing with my friends, and then burst through the door into my room and began insulting me. “How is business?” he asked, implying that I must be getting a lot of money from my lectures and classes.
It is not the money itself that is good or bad, but the use of it that makes it right or wrong. You can use it for good or for evil. Everything that has come to me I have given to God’s work.
As this writer continued to insult me in the grossest terms, my friends were giving me looks that meant, “If you just say the word we will usher him out of the door!” I was worrying that they might lose their self-control and throw him out. So when he made further accusations, I started answering, “Maybe you are right.” I didn’t say he was right; merely, “Maybe you are right.” After some time, I asked my friends to leave the room. The writer slumped back on his chair and said, “For the first time I have been licked.”
“Don’t think I am not going to give it to you,” I replied. “Tell me, why is it that an intelligent man like you behaves in this way? You were only advertising your bad behaviour, and showing what kind of person you are. I was concerned only for you, that my friends didn’t harm you.”
“You are right,” he answered. “Tell me more.” So I said, “You know, vultures soar high in the sky, but their whole mind is on the carrion on the ground below. They wait their chance; then swoop down to pick at that dead meat. That is the way you behave. Wherever people are gossiping and fighting, there you love to go and pick at the bones. You are known everywhere for your bad behaviour.
“What should I do?” he asked. I answered: “Wherever there is gossip or quarrelling, leave at once; don’t contribute to the fight. If someone insults you, or calls you a devil, that doesn’t make you one. He who calls you a devil is being used by the devil. The best thing under such circumstances is to remain quiet. If you refuse to fight, then who can fight with you? And even if such a person goes a step further and slaps you, and you do not respond, that slap will burn in his palm throughout his life. But if you fight back, he will only want to strike you twelve times harder. “
Extract from the book “Divine Romance” by Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda
