Once Shri Babaji Maharaj was speaking to a group of people. After they had gone, some more persons came to see him and they said to him: “O Babaji Maharaj! Do not allow these persons to come to you. They are not good people.”
In response to this, Shri Babaji Maharaj said to them: “In that case it will be better if you get up and go yourselves! And please do not take the trouble of coming here again.”
The persons were alarmed and said with great fear: “Maharaj! What great sin have we committed to be thrown out of thy holy darbaar in this way?”
Shri Babaji Maharaj said: “Listen! God likes humility, not pride and egoism. Who can boast of his own goodness before God? Your fault lies in thinking of yourself as good, and in thinking of others as bad. Is this assertion of your own goodness not a great vice in itself? It separates you from God, and brings you to that ego which is improper and false. I ask of you whether you look upon the existence of these people as bad or their qualities as being bad?
“If you call their existence bad then there can be no one more ignorant than you. And if you say their qualities are bad, then remember that qualities never remain the same. They can change. Those who are bad today can become good tomorrow, and those who are good today can become bad tomorrow. Valmiki was a bandit but he became a saint in one day. On the other hand there may be a mahatma who can go to jail for stealing a small thing like a button!
“Also, if I do not allow the bad to come to me, what is the purpose of my existence? Of what use can I be to those who are already good, and do not stand in need of reform? Does a doctor exist for those who are sick or for those who are well? You are good and therefore have no need for me; you are neither in a hospital nor are about to come out of one, and therefore do not need to be cured. But I am needed by those people who consider themselves sick or are actually so.
“If I do not allow the sick to come to me, and the good have no need for me, then surely I must shut down shop and go away! But no, these are my children, and they are the dearest of all to me, because they need me and I have to make them well. I have no need for those ‘good’ persons who call themselves good after calling others bad. A mother has greater love for those children who have fallen and who cannot stand up and walk by themselves.”