The Sin of Criticising a Sadhu: The Lesson of the 100 Brahmanas
- vanamadhuryamofficial
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
When Krishna departed from this material world, Kali-yuga came. People in Kali-yuga are always fighting and arguing with one another. This is their nature. The nature of Kali-yuga is constant conflict — with reason or without reason. Stupid nonsense. They’re not doing bhajana and sadhana, nothing. They’re always quarrelling. Nowadays it is very easy to quarrel. How to do it? Go to Facebook. If you want to go directly to naraka (hell), go there and write.
Do bhajana and sadhana and chant the holy names! No — instead, only nonsense. Try to realise.
kaler doṣa-nidhe rājannasti hy eko mahān guṇaḥkīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasyamukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet
Srimad-Bhagavatam (12.3.51)
[My dear King, although Kali-yuga is an ocean of faults, there is still one good quality about this age: Simply by chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, one can become free from material bondage and be promoted to the transcendental kingdom.]
In this Kali-yuga, people have millions and millions of faults. This is their nature. They’re not looking at their own faults. This is the nature of Kali-yuga. Kali-yuga people are looking at others’ faults, not their own. Stupid nonsense. Arre, chant holy names. Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu told,
kāhāre nā kare nindā'kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa' bole ajayacaitanya sei jinibeka hele
Chaitanya-bhagavata (Madhya-khanda 10.312)
[One who constantly chants the names of Krishna without offending others can easily control the unconquerable Sri Chaitanyadeva with his love.]
Always chant holy names. If you look at others’ faults, all their sins go to you. One day I told a very nice, beautiful story. Listen to it. Sometimes the Upanishads speak small, small stories so people may understand. If you only speak shlokas, katha will be dry. But when you tell small stories, then people understand. Babies like what kind of katha? Small, small stories. So in this regard, in the Upanishads and in many places, Vyasadeva Gosvami wrote small stories. Then people become interested and listen, asking, “What happened? What happened?”
So listen. Once one sadhu came in front of one king. That king was completely atheist. He had no faith in sadhu, Guru, Vaishnavas, shastra — nothing. Nirvishesha-vadi completely. Nirvishesha, shunya-vadi, that king. Understand? He had no faith in spiritual things.
When the sadhu came, he asked the king, “Give some donation.” The king said, “No, I will give nothing.” Then the sadhu said, “Give something!” At that time the king joked with the sadhu. Sometimes when you joke with a sadhu, a big problem will come if the sadhu wants.
The king gave some very bad cow dung to the sadhu. “Take this!” The sadhu took it. It had a terrible smell, maybe even contained some insects. Then the sadhu put that bad-smelling cow dung in front of the king’s bedroom, very close to where the king was sleeping. A foul smell started coming in the king’s room. He could not sleep. He cleaned it away, but again the cow dung appeared. The sadhu had used some mystic power. Again and again the king cleaned it, but it kept coming back to the same place. All the people ran away because of the smell. You cannot imagine such a bad smell.
If a bad smell appears, will you sit in that place? No, you will run away. In the same way, everyone ran away. The king thought, “What to do?” Then he realised, “Oh, maybe I committed an offense at the lotus feet of the sadhu.” He came humbly and asked, “How will this bad smell be removed?” The sadhu said, “You are very miser. I know you don’t want to give any donations. So you must feed 100 brahmanas very nice prasada every day for one year.”
So the king fed the brahmanas every day. The bad smell disappeared. 364 days passed. On the last day the king told the cook, “Today prepare sweet rice also.” They prepared very nice sweet rice. In the meantime a snake entered the kitchen and touched the sweet rice. It became completely contaminated with poison. No one knew. That sweet rice was fed to the 100 brahmanas, and they all died.
The king thought, “What to do now? It is the last day. I fed the brahmanas for 364 days, and now all the brahmanas have left their bodies.” Brahmahatya papa. Who will suffer from this brahmahatya papa? The king? The cook? The snake? Then the king became very upset. He came in front of the sadhu. “Oh, today the sweet rice was poisoned and 100 brahmanas died.”
The sadhu said, “Okay, who will take this sinful activity? To whom will it go? Now you go to one village and stay one night. Then you will realise.” The king disguised himself as a sadhu. He came to a village and asked to stay. The villagers said, “There is a brother and sister. They are very pious and give shelter to anyone who comes.” The king stayed in their house.
In the morning he had to leave. According to Vedic culture, when a sadhu departs from your house, you must follow seven of his footsteps — sapta pada. This practice is called anugamana. If you do not, you lose the fruits of your charity, donations, and punya-karma. The sadhu will then take your punya-karma.
The brother said, “Sadhu, please wait a couple of hours. My sister is meditating.” After two hours she came out. The brother asked, “Oh sister, why are you so late today? You usually finish in two hours, but today it took three or four hours.” She replied, “Oh, my brother, in my meditation I went to the heavenly planets and saw a big debate. Brahma, Shiva, Narada, Yamaraja, and all the exalted personalities were there discussing. The topic was about a king who fed sweet rice to 100 brahmanas, and they all died. Now the question is, who will take the sin?”
When the king heard this, he thought, “Oh my God! This is my life!” Then he asked, “What happened? What is the decision? Brahmaji, Shivaji, Yamaraja — what decision did they give?”
She replied, “Today no decision has been made yet. The debate is still ongoing. They said tomorrow they will give the decision, so I must meditate again to see the conclusion.”
The king said, “I really need to hear the conclusion. May I stay one more night?”
The brother and sister replied, “Yes, of course. You are a sadhu — one day, two days, five days, however long you wish, you are welcome here.”
So the sadhu stayed one more night. Then the villagers began to gossip — as is the nature of Kali-yuga. “Oh, this sadhu came and said he would stay only one night, but now he is staying two. He must be attached to the young girl.” Many people started spreading different stories, speculating in every possible way. But in reality, nothing had happened.
The king was staying in their house to hear the conclusion. But the foolish villagers, true to the nature of Kali-yuga, began gossiping and criticising. The next morning, the young girl completed her meditation. Afterward, the king asked, “What is the decision? Who will take responsibility for the sinful act of killing the 100 brahmanas? Who will bear it?”
The young girl replied, “Oh, Brahmaji and Shivaji have given the decision: all the villagers will take it.” Why? Because they criticised the sadhu — sadhu-ninda.
Try to understand this: those who criticise a sadhu actually take all the sin upon themselves.
As Srimad-Bhagavatam says, na nindati, na prasaṅgati — vasanti asura. If you criticise someone, all the sin goes to you. That means the criticisers take the sinful activity — papa — upon themselves. The shastra teaches: never criticise anyone; instead, chant the holy names.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare
So understand: those who criticise actually inherit all the sinful activities of the sadhu. They think, “Oh, I am writing very nicely; many people support me,” but they have no idea what is happening. After death, they must go to Yamaloka, and Yamaraja will bitterly punish them: “Hey, foolish one! You criticised a sadhu!”
Date: 05 January 2026 Location: Viamao, Brazil
Time Stamp - 1:31:45 - 1:50:24
Transcriber: Hari Bimohini dasi (USA)
Integrity check: Divya-premamayi dasi (Slovakia) Editor: AI tool Proofreader: Chandrika dasi (UK) Photo: Navina-krishna dasa (Holland)
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