What are the effects of competition in religion? Is religious competition or religious sectarianism worthwhile?

People want liberation and yet they engage in conflicts and difference of opinions, and take sides. By claiming you are right, you automatically say that the other person is wrong. You will never achieve liberation by saying anyone is wrong. You will only attain the abode of the supreme Self, which is void of any partiality, when you get rid of your differences of opinions, discord, and sectarianism and come to the center. By taking sides, you strengthen the foundation of partiality and in doing so you bind yourself to infinite worldly lives.

Look here! Do you want liberation or do you want to remain in sects? How many factions and warring camps have been created from just one religion? There is no liberation wherever there is anykashaya (anger, pride, attachment and greed), and there is nokashaya in religion. People resort to kashaya to strengthen their sects and have reduced religion to a racecourse. They compete for disciples. A man renounces his wife and children but takes on disciples in their place. Then he spends the entire day in discord and restlessness with his disciples. How can you call that a path to liberation?

Reference: Book Name: Aptavani 1 (Page #43 - Paragraph #2)

Fasting with pure applied awareness

Questioner: Should one decide the limit of fasting through his own experience or according to someone else’s instructions?

Dadashri: One should decide through one’s own (self) experience, but people do not fast through self-experience. One does fasts out of rivalry. They fast because of competition. This person did four so I will do eight. Fasting is not a matter of a racecourse. A fast is not a racecourse thing. One should fast according to one’s own energy but there should not be a racecourse.

Reference: Dadavani Magazine March 2009 (Page #8 – Paragraph #7 & #8)

Do Celestial beings have to suffer too?

The celestial beings do not have a childhood. They do not have to take birth through a mother’s womb. They do not have to suffer the pain of infancy and childhood. They do not even have to go to the bathroom or the toilet. There is nothing in their life that will cause them to feel a sense of detachment and dispassion (vairagya). They are born as young adults and they die as young adults. So what causes them unhappiness and suffering? There is a lot of competitiveness and jealousy in the celestial world; this person is bigger than me. They do have attachment (raag) and abhorrence (dwesh) as a result of this. They suffer intensely because of this attachment and abhorrence and that is why they too have an intense desire to meet a Gnani Purush. But they are not likely to die prematurely. They have tremendous worldly pleasures and happiness but even then, they feel as if they are in a prison. They too have to suffer inner and outer turmoil.

Reference: Book Name: Aptavani 2 (Page #35 - Paragraph #2)

There Is No Competition Here

There is no need to compete either. There is no competition here as to who makes the highest pledge. There is no such competition where the enlightened Lords, the vitaragas are concerned. It is only because of the current time cycle that people have brought the competition in charity. Competition is a dangerous disease.People engage in keen rivalry. We do not have such characteristics here. Money is not solicited here.

Reference: Book Name: Noble-use-of-money (Page #53 – Paragraph #4)