If such a person is already in contact with a Perfect Master and loves him, the master immediately puts a check and corrects the shortcomings and warns his lovers about such unauthorized behavior.

If, however, such a person is not already in contact with a Perfect Master, the master never interferes, because eventually this person also derives some benefit. The master knows that this is the play of ego. The cause of any eventual benefit to such a person is that at the cost of his own condemnation he proved to be a dust-bin for thousands to heap* their sanskaras therein.

There is no doubt that in his subsequent birth his behavior makes the person suffer much more due to this burden of acquired sanskaras. But with the intensity of his suffering, the redeeming factor is the speed with which these acquired sanskaras get wiped off. They are wiped off in proportion to the intensity of suffering. Along with the wiping off of the acquired sanskaras, his own sanskaras also get wiped off speedily.

Just as an unauthorized person, posing as a saint, proves a source of benefit to thousands, so also he proves of harm to many. All this is a play in illusion!

As an opium-addict feels happy to give a tiny bit of opium to another, and that other, when he gets the taste of it, hands over another small dose to his own friend, creating a circle of opium-eaters, the two or three persons, close to the 'opiumized' saint of our discourse, start spreading news that such and such a woman was blessed with a child, and that another got her wish fulfilled, and that the 'saint' performed many such miracles. A clique of followers around the 'opiumized' saint is created.

But this happy picture does not last long, for after some years it so happens that at least one finds out, one day that his master is a fraud and is not God-realized. The impact of such a great set-back in his confirmed belief is so forceful that all his sanskaras, which he had inadvertently transferred on to the saint in his belief and devotion, all of a sudden recoil on him spontaneously and overburden him afresh. Thus the person who had placed faith in the "opiumized" saint suffers a great deal.

Let us view the picture from another angle: suppose I am the 'opiumized' saint and you love me and revere me as the Perfect Master. Your love

*sic-was mistakenly printed as 'help'. Correction inserted was taken from from ERRATA Volume 6 No. 1 page 35-webmaster JK -2008