How can we connect with people during outreach while staying detached from the world’s illusions?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So by preaching, how can we stay detached? By deconstructing, say, the attractiveness of the world. At the same time, we stay connected with people so that we can understand the way they are thinking and become relevant.
That is the art of, you could say, fishing without getting wet. We want to get what is in the water, but we don’t want to get into the water. So we have to have broadly two things.
We have our connection with Krishna backwards. We say if I am here, I have a connection with my roots, with Krishna, with devotees, through sadhana, through studies. So that is what has to be maintained.
But at the same time, we also need to extend outward. And in general, if we are going in a particular field, say, if I am going to study, say, science and spirituality, and I want to deconstruct atheistic claims of science, then it’s I alone trying to deconstruct what atheists are saying. That’s going to be very difficult.
Because those atheists may have spent maybe 30, 40 years. That’s their life’s passion. And I might study atheism for a few days or a few weeks or a few months or at the most a few years.
So it’s not possible for me just by that much to deconstruct everything that they are saying. So then I need to associate with those who are doing that expertly. So if there are some devotee scientists who have done those studies, then if they can, this is what they are saying, this is what atheists are saying, but this is how actually it is.
Oh, I never thought of that. So for deconstructing, it is very difficult for us to do it ourselves. We need association.
Association of those who have studied that aspect of material nature and have been able to see it in spiritual light. To the extent we have that association, to the extent we see that association, to that extent we can bring the spiritual vision into it. So we want to be, we don’t want to be detached in the sense of being indifferent or apathetic.
We want to be concerned. But for being able to do that, we have to be able to go inside, in terms of go inside our own hearts to connect with Krishna and go inside to them to connect with them. So generally it’s best that we try to connect with people at a human level first.
They may have their culture, they may have their worldview, they may have their lifestyle, but we try to establish a human connection. And once we start seeing a human connection with them, then everything else falls in place. Otherwise, we get allured by whatever is being portrayed.
So I’d say broadly, first strong sadhana, second association of people, association of those who have gone to that field and they have deconstructed that alluring things, the deceptive reality. And lastly, by focusing on a human connection rather than a specialized connection at that level. So even an atheist, we need to see first of all as a human being.
And then if we are still polite, if we are considerate, then gradually everybody, for most people, their ideology is like a mask. It’s like a shield they’re holding. So it might be ideology, it might be their fashion, it might be their dress, the way they dress, their sexual orientation, all this, whatever it might be.
It’s all like a shield they are holding in front of them so that they can have some sense of identity and security in the world, which reduces us to insignificance. So then gradually, if they see that we can connect with them at a human level, gradually that shield they will draw, they will lower their guards. And then we can bring Krishna into that mode of contemplation.
So shall we stop here? So thank you very much.