​How can we help those who are sincerely following an unauthorized spiritual path?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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if somebody is correctly following a non-authoritative spiritual path what is going to be their destination and is in a sense of ignorance an excuse yes if someone has a sincere desire to learn then Krishna will guide them and so that’s why the we if we start seeing the spiritual path from a material perspective I am in this organization and he is in that organization I am belonging to this group and they are belonging to that group then we are actually missing out on the essence the essence is that we are connecting with Krishna and others are also who are trying their own way to connect with God whatever be their understanding of God right now they are trying to connect with God Krishna says that He is present in the hearts of all living beings and He guides their wanderings so if a person sincerely wants to learn then Krishna will guide them forward if not in this lifetime, in a future lifetime so sometimes somebody is connected very strongly to some particular path and by following that path they may come they may be right now in Rajoguna they might come somewhat towards Satoguna and that is the kind of elevation that they are going to do they may not go back to Krishna in this lifetime but they will make that limited spiritual elevation the important thing for us to do is we should elevate people’s faith we should not damage people’s faith so damaging people’s faith means say if somebody is doing a particular puja of some person and while they are doing that kind of work following some particular path this is wrong, this is wrong and then they go there so what happens we criticize them and then they go there and they hear something and they criticize us and then this person gets confused should I follow this person or should I follow that person and in the process this whole spiritual business is very confusing better let me not get involved in this and they become materialistic, they become atheistic what have we achieved by that we have not achieved anything Krishna says in 3.28 in the Bhagavad Gita don’t agitate the minds of people don’t disturb people’s minds so if someone is following a particular path we can appreciate them generically for having spiritual interest for having spiritual inclination and encourage them to introspect deeper so rather than saying you should follow what I am following why should I follow what you are following that’s a natural question they may get we can instead focus on telling that you genuinely pray to god please guide me what is the right thing and rather than criticizing what they are following what we can do is we can gently help them arrive at a proper understanding that’s what we can do so Krishna will guide them from within their hearts and sometimes Krishna can use us also as instruments for guiding them but our process should be to elevate them as much as possible and if we can’t elevate them yes they are following a path which may not be the right path right now and accordingly Krishna talks in the Bhagavad Gita based on whether that particular path is sattva guna, rajo guna, tamo guna they will attain a particular destination so what about innocence or ignorance we have to understand that ignorance is not just a cause of wrong choices ignorance is also the result of wrong choices that means if a person is presently put in a situation so for example if we consider say there are some people there are some say some poor children who are born in Afghanistan and Pakistan and since their childhood they are taught maths by saying you know 5 Hindus were killed and 7 Hindus were killed so how many Hindus were killed? 12 so they are taught maths in terms of murder they are just filled with hatred now naturally at that time they will grow up and they will start hating others so this kind of indoctrination at one level is child abuse and the society that does things like that that is horrible at the same time we also have to recognize that why are they born in that situation just as we understand that if somebody is born in a poor country why is that? that is a result of past bad karma now that does not mean that they should always stay poor from our point of view if somebody is in poverty we have to do things that is possible to remove the poverty but we recognize that they are born in poverty because of their past wrong choices, their past bad karma just as deprivation of food or non-access to food is a result of bad karmic choices in the past similarly non-access to spiritual knowledge is also a result of past wrong choices so that means as devotees we don’t have to get too much caught in why people are in a particular circumstance we should focus on trying to help them come closer to Krishna so certainly somebody who has somebody who has grown up thinking that some Muslim has grown up thinking that Hindus are all murderous people and that person if that person commits crime, becomes a terrorist that’s bad but if somebody who has actually lived among say Hindus and Hindus are also nice people some of them may be bad and every community has their nutcases but just as all it’s not that all Muslims are terrorists similarly the Muslims are not all Hindus are kafirs, they are bad if that person actually interacts they’ll say that there are good people also but then after knowing this also they commit wrong then that is even more culpable so certainly wrongdoings done with knowledge are worse than wrongdoings done without knowledge but even when a person is in a state of not having knowledge that state is also a result of past wrong choices so for example say somebody is born and brought up in a family where they consider a particular guru to be God and then that’s why that person goes up and thinks this guru is God but if that guru makes an elaborate pretense, you know maybe today I’ll give darshan of Krishna, today I’ll give darshan of Vishnu, today I’ll give darshan of Vaman they do all this kind of things and they do a lot you know they may say oh I’m lifting Govardhan and it’s just nothing, there is some magnet or something by which Govardhan is being lifted now if the persons who are a part of that whole team who are orchestrating that illusion they know that this person is not truly lifting the mountain but they’re just creating a show of that then that person is even more culpable so culpability is variable depending on how much a person is aware of what is right and what is wrong and that’s why we should try to in as non-judgmental non-critical and compassionate way as possible help people understand what is right and what is wrong so if people don’t know, we shouldn’t think that is their own bad karma because they don’t know that’s why they are suffering no, we should try to give that knowledge if people don’t know that is our problem if people don’t know the right thing we should think that is our problem and we should try to help them understand the right thing not just judgmentally tell them you are wrong and I am right, not like that systematically try to help them understand and if they don’t do the right thing that is their problem then that is between them and Krishna and Krishna will give them lessons gradually maybe the school of hard knocks and they will have to learn, maybe it will take many lifetimes after getting consequences of their wrong choices they will learn overall, when we interact with people our first purpose should be that we should give them a positive impression about Krishna and Krishna’s devotees I met a nice person, I met an intelligent person if they get that much appreciation that will make them a little more open next time they interact they may want to learn a little bit more and gradually we can help them come closer towards Krishna it’s not that in one dose if somebody is following a particular path we can remove all the misconceptions and make them surrender devotees towards Krishna, it’s not going to happen so there should be gradual sharing of spiritual knowledge and sharing of spiritual knowledge should be done in a non-judgmental, non-critical way gradually helping people develop their faith in Krishna, they have faith in something else right now so right now first we want to do is try to help them develop their faith in Krishna in Krishna’s devotees and in Krishna’s message and gradually in the light of Krishna’s message they will themselves challenge what they have heard earlier and they will come to the correct understanding Thank you very much Shri Prabhupada Ki