Spotting Others’ Mistakes

 

Spotting Others’ Mistakes

During my early years of CA practise, I remembered a case and hence this post. There was this officer from South India who had got promoted from Inspector level to Income Tax Officer. During his inspector days too, he would ask for money – his opening sentence being – ‘client is cooperative no!!’ When I came across him during a case which involved this company which had all clean transactions – this was also his refrain. I told him the client is very cooperative and we can bring truckloads of documents for you to verify. He did not find anything and started postponing releasing the assessment order and started nit-picking. This particular client was doing some hardware and software work for the Income Tax department in Maharashtra in those days, and coincidentally that week the installation was being done in the commissioner’s office to whom this gentleman reported. I went with my client and explained the situation to the commissioner. He called for this ITO immediately and told him to complete the scrutiny and pass the order immediately. One thing he said which registered was – It is easy to find out mistakes a company makes but it is very difficult to run a company. So, unless there are any law points, issue the order immediately. We got the order immediately without any ‘costs’!

It is so easy to point out mistakes which someone makes – but do we see our own shortcomings with the same ease, and if we do, do we acknowledge them? My profession is about finding out mistakes, for me it has become second nature – in fact now the indication comes at the soul level if something is wrong and invariably it turns out to be so!

When we start pointing out mistakes and pointing fingers, we should always remember that four fingers point back at us. We should always introspect to check whether we are committing the same mistakes. It is difficult to see our own mistakes – in fact we are invariably blind to our own mistakes. The change takes place only when we meet our realised Master who bestows us with self-realisation. Once this happens it is like we are looking into a mirror and we start seeing our own shortcomings. With regular meditation the images slowly disappear and once the chitta becomes strong, your soul does not allow you to do anything which goes against the conscience. So, it is best to meditate and strengthen the soul to such an extent that nothing wrong or bad happens with you or to you.