Doshadristi describes the tendency of human beings to find fault with others and to see imperfection everywhere while overlooking all that is inherently perfect. This insidious tendency of the mind proceeds from the unripe ego that is insecure at one moment and puffed up with pride the next. This wavering condition is reflective of spiritual immaturity. The blessed Christ said: “Seek thee first to remove the beam from thine own eye before attempting to remove the mote of dust from another’s.” The Holy Mother, Sri Sarada Devi, explained it thus: “Do not find fault with others. Learn to see your own faults. The whole world is your own. No one is a stranger.” Lord Buddha also pointed out this tenacious problem:

“The faults of others are easily seen, but one’s own faults are perceived with difficulty. One winnows the faults of others like chaff, but conceals his own faults as a fowler covers his body with leaves and twigs.”

Speaking further on the subject, He said: “Those who imagine error where there is none, and do not see it where it does exist, such beings, embracing false views, enter the woeful path.”

There is another aspect to Doshadristi that must not be overlooked. It is of cosmic design. There are defects inherent in the universal scheme of things and many beings complain about and even obsess with them. They labor under the influence of Doshadristi. One who is free from defective vision will instead go deeper and perceive the underlying perfection and the eternal connectedness of all things. As Lord Buddha acknowledges: “The world is blind. Few see things as they really are. As birds escaped from the net, very few gain right perspective.” The seer of wisdom uses discrimination to uncover the defects in creation and transcend them, but also perceives their unique facility for revealing what is perfect. In other words, darkness only reveals the glory of the light. As Sri Ramakrishna points out: “Once, some ruffians were causing a disturbance on a landlord’s estate. The landlord hired some other ruffians to go and put an end to it.” More to the point, and at a very realized level, the Great Master related: “A monk was once beaten unconscious in the streets by a wicked man. When he regained consciousness at the monastery, one of the monks asked him where he was in order to ascertain his mental competency. He answered, ‘He who was beating me is now inquiring after my well-being.’” The enlightened mind sees perfection everywhere and realizes that all imperfections in the cosmic design are only apparent and there to serve a higher purpose.

Tarkika-Buddhi conveys the problem of an intellect that always argues. This is due in part to the doshadristi aspect in it, but also points very directly to lack of faith, nonacceptance of Truth and basic insecurity. What is more, it reveals the inherent defect of the mind which inadvertently defaults to possessiveness around its small store of personal knowledge, claiming it, holding it up above all else and foisting it upon others as the final decree in all matters. In religion, Sri Ramakrishna indicates this tendency in the mind by observing: “Everyone thinks that their own watch keeps the only correct time.” Here, narrow intelligence proclaims its own way as superior to the way of others and argues incessantly on the matter. In scholastic circles, Tarkika-Buddhi has been made into an artform, turning the pastime of argument and superior debate into a coveted attainment. This is moha, wherein something negative and detrimental is presumed to be positive and beneficial. In philosophy, refutation, text-torturing and inadvisable interpolation go on interminably, often at the cost of perceiving Truth’s basic and natural premises and principles. In everyday life, too, people argue incessantly in matters that are either best kept silent about or merely accepted outright. In this regard, Lord Buddha declared: “One is not a supporter of the law merely because he talks much. But that one who hears only a little of the divine law, yet perceives its essence by diligent exertion, and does not neglect it, is indeed a true supporter of the divine law.” Shankaracharya refutes the tendency of the intellect to argue and advises acceptance of what is natural and obvious:

“Giving up this unreal notion — what you have taken as your own self — take instead that which is real, self-evident, beyond all argumentation. ‘I am Brahman’ — by this pure thought, know thine own Self, which is indivisible Consciousness.”

In the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna puts it in simpler terms: “Those who carp and cavil about this, my Supreme Truth, will never be able to comprehend it.” In the words of Sri Ramakrishna, “Only one thing has never been defiled by the tongue of mankind, and that is Brahman Itself. There are defects in every religion, but it is God who maintains them there and it is God who also removes them in time. A man sets out to visit Jagannath but goes north instead of south. Searching for that location, he asks someone where it is and is told to go south. Eventually he reaches Jagannath, attends the temple and communes with the Lord of the Universe.” In the Uddhava Gita, Lord Krishna speaks further on the subject: “‘It is not as you put it, it is as I put it’ — this sort of fighting over the issue is due to Maya’s powers of the gunas which are difficult to get rid of. It is this disturbance that causes the doubt which is the ground of contention among the disputants. This doubt vanishes when one attains calmness of mind and self-control, and after that all dispute is at an end.” The distortion of argumentation is a great obstacle, then, and must be overcome if recognition of Truth and realization of the Atman are to be attained.