In bhakti, how do we decide which aspects are matters of principle and which, matters of preference?

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Transcript

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Thank you so much. So, how do we differentiate between what is the preference and what is the principle? Who decides? For example, is dress a matter of principle or is it a matter of preference? Yeah.
It’s not always so easy to decide. Hmm. So, there is a conversation between Prabhupada and Allen Ginsberg, which is there in the Hare Krishna explosion.
And there, Allen Ginsberg is telling Prabhupada that Krishna consciousness will not spread much in the West as long as it looks very sectarian. Prabhupada said, what is sectarian about us? He said, no, your dress, your food, your prayer, they are all sectarian. They all look very Hindu.
So, Prabhupada, that conversation is very inclusive. He said, actually, you can chant any names of God. You don’t have to chant the Hare Krishna mantra only.
He said, it sounds like a Sanskrit mantra. It sounds like a foreign mantra to me. I said, your food is so Indian.
He said, no, you can offer any food to Krishna and you can take it. And, regarding the third thing was dress. He said, you don’t have to wear a dhoti, Prabhupada.
You can wear a shirt pant also and practice. So, now, Prabhupada says that, but in this con, he implemented something very particular. Implemented a particular dress.
He chanted a particular mantra. Now, if you see, rather than saying something as a right or wrong, what I would say it is that you can see Krishna consciousness as a series of concentric circles of expanding radii. So, some people may conform to the traditional standard more.
Some people may adopt a more flexible approach. Either way, if their intention is to serve Krishna, then no one will show this. So, Prabhupada told that, you know, I did not change anything from what my spiritual master told me.
But then, we see that Prabhupada did change things. In the Gaudiyamma temple, there were Gaurakadada deities. Prabhupada has gone with Ayurvedas.
So, there are many things like that. Small, small things. But Prabhupada did change.
So, it is not possible that everything can be kept entirely as it is. For example, now, we use emails. Prabhupada did not use emails.
No, they are not there at that time. So, as times change, there is a, see, faithfulness to tradition also includes faithfulness to the flexibility of the tradition. The tradition itself has been flexible.
If you look at the way Bhaktivinoda Thakura practices bhakti and shares bhakti in 18th, 19th century, it is different from the way Chaitanya Mahaprabhu practices bhakti in 16th century. It is just natural. So, that flexibility is also a part of the tradition.
So, my understanding of this would be that, you know, we cannot mandate a global standard for everything. There has to be trust in the local leaders. The local leaders have to internalize the principles of bhakti and based on that, they have to decide what is the best way they can bring people closer to Krishna.
And people who are not in that circumstance, they should not pass judgment about this. Of course, there can be seeking of clarification, there can be explanation, but the world is so different in America and India. In the western world and India, there is so much difference.
So, we will unnecessarily make it too difficult for people to come to Krishna if we have things which make us seem sectarian. See, we may say we are not sectarian, but by our looks if we seem sectarian, people will not even explore how are we not sectarian. So, in one sense, the art of preaching is the art of decreasing the obstacles on people’s path to come closer to Krishna.
So, now, how to do that? There is always the danger of going too far and deviating. At the same time, there is also the other danger of sticking too closely to something and making it difficult for people to come close to Krishna. So, it’s something which I think the senior Vaishnavas, the leaders at a particular place, they need to deeply pray, meditate, maybe discuss with others in similar situations and arrive at an understanding of what to do.
It becomes judgmental either way that is wrong or this is the only right thing. That is, the problem comes when we become unnecessarily critical of Vaishnavas. Sometimes the liberals become very critical of the conservatives and the conservatives become critical of the liberals.
So, one of the characteristics of Kanishka Adhikari is that they quarrel. One result, one cause of quarrelling is that people talk about each other instead of talking with each other. Oh, he is like that, she is like that, they are like that.
We just keep talking behind their back and things become worse. So, even the leaders can come together and discuss and then to a large extent things can be clarified. But another issue is that we don’t have to take, get involved in problems that we don’t have to deal with.
We can focus on our practice of bhakti and if eventually Krishna gives us a position of leadership, we can take care at that time of that meeting. But let’s focus on our own practice of bhakti right now. Thank you.
This is Sundari Gopika from Mumbai.