We criticize when we are :
- Envious
- Unfairly treated
- Have Experienced Trauma
Why do we criticize:
- Makes us feel better about ourselves
- Revenge for unfair treatment and coping with trauma
However, this evaluation of good or bad is based on matter. Criticizing does not help us heal our pain.
Why is criticism harmful:
- We become entangled further in Maya and illusion as we further cement our materialistic viewpoint. The qualities good and bad we see are based on matter and thus temporary and have no basis
- We end up getting the qualities that we criticize by constantly associating with them in our mind
- We lose focus of our eternal identity, life and goal of serving Krishna.
- It increases our attachment to the material world and its dualities
The above points have been derived from the following verses by Lord Sri Krsna to Uddhava:
SB 11.28.1 — The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: One should neither praise nor criticize the conditioned nature and activities of other persons. Rather, one should see this world as simply the combination of material nature and the enjoying souls, all based on the one Absolute Truth.
SB 11.28.2 — Whoever indulges in praising or criticizing the qualities and behavior of others will quickly become deviated from his own best interest by his entanglement in illusory dualities.
SB 11.28.3 — Just as the embodied spirit soul loses external consciousness when his senses are overcome by the illusion of dreaming or the deathlike state of deep sleep, so a person experiencing material duality must encounter illusion and death.
SB 11.28.4 — That which is expressed by material words or meditated upon by the material mind is not ultimate truth. What, therefore, is actually good or bad within this insubstantial world of duality, and how can the extent of such good and bad be measured?
SB 11.28.5 — Although shadows, echoes and mirages are only illusory reflections of real things, such reflections do cause a semblance of meaningful or comprehensible perception. In the same way, although the identification of the conditioned soul with the material body, mind and ego is illusory, this identification generates fear within him even up to the moment of death.
SB 11.28.6-7 — The Supersoul alone is the ultimate controller and creator of this world, and thus He alone is also the created. Similarly, the Soul of all existence Himself both maintains and is maintained, withdraws and is withdrawn. No other entity can be properly ascertained as separate from Him, the Supreme Soul, who nonetheless is distinct from everything and everyone else. The appearance of the threefold material nature, which is perceived within Him, has no actual basis. Rather, you should understand that this material nature, composed of the three modes, is simply the product of His illusory potency.
SB 11.28.8 — One who has properly understood the process of becoming firmly fixed in theoretical and realized knowledge, as described herein by Me, does not indulge in material criticism or praise. Like the sun, he wanders freely throughout this world.
SB 11.28.9 — By direct perception, logical deduction, scriptural testimony and personal realization, one should know that this world has a beginning and an end and so is not the ultimate reality. Thus one should live in this world without attachment.
