Once upon a time, there were two friends. One day they were going along a street when they saw some people listening to a reading of the Bhagavata Katha.

“Come, friend,” said the one to the other, “let us hear the sacred book.” So saying he went in and sat down. The second man peeped in and went away.

He entered a house where a prostitute lives. But very soon he felt disgusted with the place. “Shame on me!” he said to himself. “My friend has been listening to the sacred word of Hari and see where I am!”

But the friend who had been listening to the Bhagavata also became disgusted. “What a fool I am!” he said to himself. “I have been listening to this fellow’s blah-blah, and my friend is having a great time.”

In the course of time, they both died.

The messenger of death came for the soul of one who had listened to the Bhagavata and dragged it off to hell.

The messenger of God came for the soul of the one who had been to the house of prostitution and led it up to heaven.

Verily, the Lord looks into a man’s heart and does not judge him by what he does for showoff or outwardly.

-A parable by Ramakrishna Paramhansa