It's generally accepted that you should judge someone not by what they say instead by what they do. It's important to remember that sometimes people do evil while trying to do good.when someone's misguided notions end up harming someone are they than a bad person even if they thought it was good? If Hitler honestly believed he was doing the world justice is he still an evil person? If Ghandi on the other hand believed he was doing the world harm would he still be a good person? Which is more important someone's intentions or the result?
I think we have no choice but to look at results, not that we need to really judge anyone in our smaller ways. Hitler and Gandhi are extreme examples, and at least for Gandhi, there are still those that feel he did more harm than good. I'm not sure if anyone feels Hitler did good. Both were guided by the same book, the Bhagavad Gita. But each saw different messages. Hitler felt he was just like Arjuna, fighting the good battle, whereas Gandhi drew from the passages involving ahimsa. So it goes back to anava, primal ignorance. This is God's reason for people to see the picture through ego, and then do more harm than good. A simple example is the parent who babies their kids, thinking all the while it's the kind thing to do. That's really just looking at the picture for what they themselves are getting, and not looking at it for the child's benefit. In other words, selfishness.
