During Western outreach, results come very slowly – how to avoid becoming encouraged?
Question: Sometimes, our outreach efforts in the West don’t achieve the same level of success as in India, where large numbers of people attend programs. How can we avoid discouragement, especially when we might be working alone, which can be disheartening?
Answer: Yes, this is a significant challenge. For this reason, having some form of virtual networking with other devotees involved in Western outreach is crucial. Otherwise, it can indeed feel like a solitary and exhausting toil, as you rightly pointed out. Seek out other devotees doing similar work, learn from their experiences, share your own, and draw strength from this mutual support.
Sometimes, we need to reconceptualize our definition of success. Consider an instance where Srila Prabhupada was asked, “Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur preached in Bengal, and you preached all over the world. Therefore, you are greater than him.” Prabhupada humbly replied, “Never think like this. It is by their blessings that I have been able to do what I have done.”
While Prabhupada’s humility is evident, the reality is that when he came to America, there was a certain receptivity. It wasn’t a ready-made audience; Prabhupada had to overcome various forms of resistance. However, there was an underlying interest. During Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur’s time, India was in constant political turmoil due to the independence struggle. Although Bhaktisiddhanta Thakur convinced Prabhupada to rise above this struggle and focus on bhakti, many people were completely engrossed in the political movement. Within that challenging environment, what Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur’s mission achieved was truly remarkable, even if not as extensive as Prabhupada’s global reach.
This illustrates that we cannot apply a universal standard of success across different ages or contexts, as each era presents its own unique challenges. Just as we cannot literally compare the level of success between Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur and Srila Prabhupada due to their distinct historical contexts, similarly, we cannot directly compare success in India with success in the West (America or Europe).
To offer an analogy: imagine two people dancing. One dances on a smooth, ideal dance floor. The other dances on a floor littered with oil and broken glass, slipping and bleeding. If the latter manages to dance for even five minutes, it might be a more commendable achievement than dancing for fifteen or thirty minutes on the comfortable floor.
Using a sports metaphor like cricket: some pitches are “batsman’s paradises,” where scoring a double century is achievable. Others are “batsman’s graveyards,” where even a half-century is a monumental achievement. Scoring a half-century on a difficult pitch might represent a greater batting feat than a double century on an easy one.
Similarly, even connecting one person with Krishna in the Western world is a significant achievement, requiring far more effort. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s “more laudable,” but it is undeniably substantial because the “pitch” on which you are “batting” is far tougher. In India, when we preach, we don’t always need to create faith. People often possess an innate piety, and our role is primarily to remove the intellectual doubts that prevent them from acting on it. In the Western world, if people have innate piety, they typically gravitate towards their birth religion (Christianity, Judaism, etc.). To reach Western individuals for Krishna consciousness often requires creating faith in them, which is a much more arduous task.
Therefore, it’s vital to recognize that by undertaking this challenging work, we are deeply pleasing to our tradition and our spiritual master. Where the need is greater, greater mercy is available. Consider the example of giving a glass of water: giving it to a wounded soldier on a battlefield who desperately needs it is a profoundly different act than giving it to someone at home who merely requests it out of mild thirst, even though the physical action is the same.
We need to look beyond simplistic comparative definitions of success and appreciate the unique context of our outreach efforts. Both networking with other devotees and understanding the distinct challenges of the Western field will help us appreciate the value of our endeavors. Even if progress is slow, any progress made in such a demanding environment is highly commendable.