Acharya Prashant states that we have a strange attitude towards the wise and the saints. We bow our heads before them and willingly sing their words with great devotion, but we also violate the very things they have taught us in those same words. The fundamental problem is that we call saints 'good people'. Our definition of a good person in ordinary life is someone who does not hurt us, does not cause us pain, and supports our views. If you are in an argument and someone comes and supports you, you immediately think they are a good person. So, a good person is one who supports our opinions, our stance, and our words. We apply this same definition to saints, calling them good and gentle people. By 'good,' we mean someone who will not give us trouble or stand against us. This definition of goodness creates a big problem because every word and every line from the saints is meant to break us. However, the saints have such sweetness, smoothness, and gentleness that looking at them, it does not seem like this person has come to do the work of breaking. He looks like a very good man, with a sweet voice and cool speech, who has incarnated for the welfare of the world, wishing well for everyone. This 'good' image of the saints overshadows their real intentions. Their intention is to break us, but their image is sweet and gentle. When we sing their devotional songs, we are fully convinced that there is nothing in them that is said to break us. We think, 'Such a good man, why would he say anything to break us?' The saints' message is made sweet precisely because it is very bitter for the ego. It is like a bitter pill coated in sugar. We have taken the sweetness and discarded the medicine. The work of the saints is like an explosion, so it must be done with minimum friction, hence the gentleness. Their message is dangerous for the ego, so it has to be presented dipped in sweet syrup; otherwise, the ego will not accept it. We have become so accustomed to this that we do not even realize our emotions are not genuine. We have become machines, conditioned from childhood to perform religious rituals without understanding their meaning. Religion, which is meant to make the inert conscious, is used by us to become more mechanical. We enjoy the emotional high of devotional songs without understanding the message. This is the fundamental problem of human life: finding pleasure in things without knowing the truth behind them. We have a hidden self-interest in showing saints as very gentle. By showing them as gentle, we assure ourselves that this person will not break us.
