Why has the zeal for outreach gone down in our movement?

Transcript

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So the zeal for Sharing Krishna Bhakti Was there in the past That is lacking There is quite a bit of apathy The people are satisfied It is simply their own practice of bhakti Although there is so much scope for outreach What can be done about this Actually this will be In my understanding There are three different aspects to it First is that Different people themselves Have different natures If we consider The broad Bhakti tradition of India How many missionaries were there If you see If you look at Chaitanya Charita Amruta, Chaitanya Bhagwat The devotees would chant Hare Krishna And they would do kirtans But In general most people Are not missionaries Most people Are not very concerned About the big world And changing the world It is not necessary that they are selfish It is just that That is not the way they think or they work Even in the outside world we will see That there are some people who are very socially conscious We have to do environmental activism We have to take care of this We have to take care of that And there are many people Okay I will do this but not more than this And some people not care for it So I will say that That zeal or activism Is something Which is present in some people Is not present in some people That is the way the demographic of the outer world is And when people come to the Krishna Consciousness Movement To some extent the demographic of the Krishna Conscious Movement will also reflect the outer world So there will be some people who will have A lot of zeal But they will always be in the minority Just as Outside of people social reformers Or that kind of thing there are not many Now in one sense We could say Srila Prabhupada When he went to America Largely that was the mood and that was the kind of people Who he attracted The hippies were not just reformers They were revolutionaries Reformers means they come to a Say come to a building and they say Actually this painting is not good we will change this This decoration is not good we will change this So reformers Gradually change Revolutionary means Blow up this building only we will build a new building That is the mood of revolutionaries So In the initial days of our movement We attracted that kind of people Who had that Revolutionary zeal So naturally the Outreach happened much much more So I would say That the kind of people we attract That also matters a lot And it is not that People who are not Having that activist zeal They are bad Now we may say that by the contact with Prabhupada and the contact With Krishna Through Srila Prabhupada There are many devotees Who Had no activist zeal earlier But now they are developing that zeal There is one devotee who tells me that Almost every day he goes To a Buddhist temple now Before he became a devotee He said even in college If there is a group of 5-6 people I would be afraid to talk over there He was such a reserved person But now even though he knew those people Still he was apprehensive about talking with them He is going and talking with unfamiliar people So to some extent That transformation does happen But it is not that That original nature can be entirely changed So those There are some people They Basically need order and stability In their life And some people need adventure and newness In their life And that is the basic need So those who are revolutionaries They need adventure and newness Go to a new place, start a centre, meet new people Do this, do that And there are some people who need order and structure So for example Within bhakti both of them can be accommodated So for example We have deity worship In deity worship there is spiritual newness But at a material level there is order and structure Come on, do this on time And those who are doing deity worship Are also doing a valuable service So Everybody Bhaishya Prabhupada’s inspiration Will develop some activism But if some devotees don’t develop that spirit Of zeal for sharing Then that could be because their inner nature Is that they need more order and structure So there are many devotees In our movement I have seen Devotees who are Because they are travelling preachers There are some devotees Who like to speak to new people And there are some devotees Who like to speak to devotees And those who like to speak to devotees Often they may become teachers Bhakti Shastri teachers, Bhakti Vaibhav teachers And for them they need a structure A pattern and then they will take the education forward Some people just go to new people Answer challenging questions Meet different kinds of people So even in an activity as specific as teaching There could be the need for order and structure And there could be the need for newness and adventure And devotees will find Find the Find their particular engagement accordingly So those who are Teaching to insiders They are not having that much Zeal to go out But they are doing service accordingly So as our movement becomes bigger We also need to Find out how we can engage people According to their nature So everybody may not have the zeal for activism But they can also be channeled Their energy can be channeled in service Certainly everybody needs to be pushed Prabhupada himself said that My spiritual master pushed me I am pushing you, you push others Ours is a pushing parampara So Pushing is definitely required But it has to be Done in such a way that people don’t feel Alienated by that It’s a subtle line Sometimes pushing inspires us to do something And sometimes pushing just becomes unbearable So if we are sensitive Then we will be able to understand when that line is being crossed That’s the first point The second point is that Actually This Apathy or the not Eagerness to share I think it’s also a product of Culture In the sense that Many devotees will be happy to share If they are provided the facilities By which they can share That means That Suppose If we educate and train devotees When you face questions These are the ways you can answer the questions If you have to talk with people This is the way you can talk with people If you want to start some outreach How can you do it? Many times if the training is not there The devotees try once, twice, thrice They try to share Krishna Bhakti with someone They ask some difficult questions And then they become This doesn’t work, I will not share it So basically if we provide the training And the facility By which devotees can share Then many devotees will take it up So for example If we have some Structured facility for training If you want to answer questions If you want to reach out to new people These are the kind of questions people ask And this is how you can answer those questions So if we have some training program For devotees who are doing outreach And then What happens by that? Devotees feel empowered Otherwise people ask such questions They don’t know the answers Now some devotees may have the zeal To go around and look where can I find the answers But many devotees They may not have that So often it is not so much that devotees Are apathetic But they feel unequipped And this especially happens Now our movement has become Largely Indian And Indians feel comfortable reaching out to Indians But Indians find it Difficult to reach out to non-Indians It’s not that they don’t want to But it just doesn’t It just doesn’t happen Because the culture is so different The upbringing The way of thinking is so different So I have not seen across the world Many Indian devotees Actually being able to reach out to western But there are a few devotees who have done that But they have had to put in a lot of effort They have to connect with other devotees Who are successful in western outreach And then do that So In one sense Even in the western world As well as in India The movement is growing But it is growing among Indians So it’s largely If you consider Comparatively speaking As compared to other spiritual movements Krishna Consciousness Movement is growing quite fast It’s growing big in India And in the west also among Indians It is growing reasonably fast So it’s not that devotees don’t have zeal It’s just that they are not equipped So we need special training To equip Devotees for western outreach Or rather the outreach In the place where they are at You see Prabhupada himself Prabhupada was special That he could reach out to so many western people But even Sri Prabhupada After the first few years He actually left his western outreach To his western disciples After 1971-72 onwards Prabhupada spent most of his time in India Sri Prabhupada could have done whatever He had wanted. Krishna could have empowered him But if we see what Prabhupada did Prabhupada let western outreach Be done by western disciples And he focused on India There is a practical reason also That he found that his western disciples Were being cheated by Indians Because Indians would flee And think that westerners have a lot of money And they would charge 10 times the average rate And the devotees from America Would think, hey this is 10 times Less than the American rate So they would think we got it Very cheap And they would actually be spending A lot of money So there was a nickname Which they had Indian dealers were dealing with Western devotees They said, these are damn cheap babus I mean they think they are getting it damn cheap But we are actually giving them very expensive So Prabhupada practically Had to stay in India So we need some amount of training For how to do Outreach in a way That is Accessible to the contemporary culture So that Revolutionary phase That when Sri Prabhupada Was there, that is ended now The hippie movement, the counterculture That is no longer there So the way the preaching happened at that time It will not work now I was at a seminary in India A Christian seminary They invited me to speak And there They had A 7 year course By which These Indians were converted to Christianity They would become fathers And this is what they said I am a brother now, in one year I will become a father So But the important point was In their 7 year syllabus They told me that actually 70% of their studies Are about Hinduism And 30% is about Christianity Now of course They are not studying Hinduism to understand Hinduism So that they can practice it They are studying it to understand it so that they can refute it And present Christianity But that aspect of studying the Native culture So that we can present Things appropriately That’s just one aspect of training So I feel if devotees are equipped Trained Then outreach will happen But till that point If we see Okay we may go for Harina We may go for Buddhist tradition And all this is important But in terms of attracting western people to become devotees We will need Not just awareness That we are here But there may be a step by step process How can they become devotees What is required for them How can they be trained And how can we be trained to help them in their journey That training would be the second aspect The third aspect is That the Situation in the movement right now Is that Actually as I said Initially there were The devotees who were Staying inside the temple So the movement was mostly monastic That was what was there in America And in India it was mostly life members So you could say that The monastics They were at higher level And the Life members at a lower level Now today Most of our movement is neither there nor there Most of our movement is neither monastics Nor life members Our movement is largely Congregation based So congregation based means That everybody has their family Everybody has their career Everybody has their social responsibilities And we need to So we cannot expect people who are at this level To practice at this level So those who are congregation members They cannot share the way Those who are monastics are sharing But at the same time they are not at this level of life members They just want to come to the temple And occasionally do nothing else So we need to recalibrate So that devotees who are Members of the congregation At their level How best they can share Krishna Bhakti If we expect those who are Congregation members to try to practice And share Krishna Bhakti The way those who were In the monastery earlier Those who were monastics earlier That is not going to work So even devotees who stayed for some time in the temple They were introduced to Krishna Bhakti in the temple And they go out afterwards And they live in the world Their understanding and experience of Krishna Bhakti is different from those Who have never lived in the temple Those who grew up in a family setting So for the level of the congregation We need to recalibrate The expectations and then Offer avenues By which people can do outreach At that level