All of us take great pride in taking others to task.  We derive two of the greatest pleasures in the world either by criticizing a person or showing our maturity and goodness by advising a person.  Nothing else gives a person more satisfaction.  The point is how many of us can consider ourselves to be good enough to criticize or advise a person.  Most of us lose our claim to perfection as we succumb to any of the following factors in our lives.

1. Corruption:- A person who has a inborn nature to steal becomes corrupt.  Sometimes situations force a person to become corrupt.  However neither of the reasons or for that matter any other reasons justify corruption.

2. Relationships:- Corruption is not just about not accepting bribes, it goes beyond that and even a honest person can be considered corrupt.  A person especially a married person having a relationship outside marriage can also be considered corrupt because he is cheating his wife.

3. Offering bribes to get work done:- A person need not accept bribe  to be called corrupt.  Offering money to official to bypass routine time consuming procedures is also one way of being corrupt.

4. Recommendations:- There are two ways of getting darshan in a temple.  First is you stand in queues and the other option is paying special feels for special darshan.  Big people through their influence gain direct entry to temples without paying extra fees.  The person who uses his clout and the person who accommodates the influential person are equally at fault.

5. Purchasing movie or cricket match tickets in black:- There are many who proudly say that they have purchased a 100 rupees movie ticket for Rs.300.  There may be 100 people who might have come 2 hours before booking started and would have stood in queue for another 2 hours but only 75 of them would have got tickets.  The rest who did get a ticket just  because few people purchased in black.  Their effort of standing for hours in queues got wasted for no fault of theirs.

6. Getting travel tickets through recommendation:- Many of us are required to book railway tickets at very short notice. Even if confirmed tickets are not available, the same can be booked if a person has the right contacts.  These tickets are booked under emergency quota citing critical illness to somebody as the cost common of all reasons.  In some cases if a person is unable to get a confirmed ticket through recommendation then the person bribes the officials inside the train and gets tickets. Obtaining a ticket through his influence citing wrong reasons or  getting a ticket through wealth  at the expense of a person who has to forego travel or sit in unreserved compartments cannot be justified in any way.

Most of us are sure to have succumbed to any one of the temptations listed above,  or a combination of temptations and as such we should be extremely careful when we criticize or advise a person.  We should first try to overcome our shortcomings before advising or criticizing a person

Regards

Satish