Long time ago there was a great king in the Raghukul dynasty (Lord Rama also belonged to the same dynasty). He was suffering from leprosy. He fell on the feet of his master, Guru Vashishtha and said: "Oh Master! So much of suffering... ?"
The master kept his hand on his eyes and asked him: "Look far. What do you see?"
"A huge sparkling golden mountain. And another black coal like mountain."
"One is the mountain of your good karma which gave you your kingdom, richness, power & fame. Another is the mountain of your sins because of which you have the painful disease, worries & troubles."
"Master! Is there a way to get relieved of these?"
"Eat up that mountain."
"Oh lord! Eating that mountain is out of my control."
"Then eat up the pile of garbage lying behind your palace."
"Oh great soul! I will not be able to eat that. Please tell me a simple way."
For a few seconds Guru Vashishtha made his mind peaceful and thought of a solution and said: "Sleep in a bed placed near main door of the palace of your widow sister-in-law everyday at 6:00 PM."
The king of Raghukul dynasty... In the palace of widow sister-in-law... ? What will people say? But there was no other solution. The king did as his master told him. Whoever passed by commented on the bad character of the king and humilated him. People even used abusive language. At ten o' clock in the night the king silently went back to his palace. The next morning he saw that a part of his body was cured. The next day the disease was further cured. In this way his body was getting cured day by day. His mind was also more peaceful now. On the fourth day Vashishtha ji kept his hand over his eyes and asked him to see again. This time he saw that the golden mountain of good karma was as big & sparkling as earlier but the black mountain of sins became very small.
Vashishtha ji said: "All those who spoke ill about you & criticized you have taken the portion of your sins. Now they'll have to suffer the consequences of your bad karma. You have become pure."
After two days that black mountain was reduced to a small pebble. The king was totally cured except for a small mark on his face.
"Oh Master!The big mountain has vanished and a small pebble is remaining now. There is a small mark on face now and a little grief in the heart."
"The remaining part is mine. Why should I commit the sin of criticizing & blaming an innocent & pure man and then bear the consequences? You bear the remaining yourself."
Whenever great men have come to earth whether it was Ramkrishna, Ramteerth, Raman Mahrishi, Buddha, Mahavir, Kabir, Guru Nanakdev, Socrates or Christ, their critics were always there. Many of their karmas of past lives (sanchita karma) are destroyed after attaining true knowledge. They are unattached to whatever karma they are doing in this life (kriyaman) so their followers & critics take these karma. They bear with the remaining karma (prarabdha) happily. They understand that happiness & sadness come and go. How can the material things which come & go disturb my real self? Thus those who have realized true knowledge never lose their balance of mind.
Two men were going somewhere. On the way they became tired. Both of them were troubled by the heat of the sun. thirst & pebbles lying on the road. One man being ignorant is complaining: "Oh My! I'm too tired. I don't know how far we need to walk." Thus these words of his are increasing his pain. The other one knows that there is just one kilometer left. He says: "When we've walked so much then we can easily walk another kilometer. How does it matter?" One is worried and the other is merry.
Similarly those who have realized true knowledge are on the same road of life as we are. We are ignorant and they have discovered the truth.
Do not get lost in your problems or successes. If you apply concentration in your day to day circumstances then even your harsh karmas will melt away by the warmth of knowledge.
If you get the blessings of the self realized saints then your road to salvation will become easy.