The power of humility & sensitivity – How Mahaprabhu transformed Prakashananda Saraswati

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This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hmm. So this is in the Madhya Leela Chaitanya Charita Amrit has 25 chapters in Madhya Leela.
That’s the longest section of Chaitanya Charita Amrit. There are 20 chapters in the Antya Leela and there are 17 in the Adi Leela. So this pastime of, so Prakashan his pastime is actually distributed.
It primarily his interaction happens in the 25th chapter. The focus is on him. But there are references to him earlier also when Mahaprabhu is in Varanasi.
So Mahaprabhu actually is in Varanasi. He goes to Vrindavan and then he comes back. The Madhya Leela is primarily Mahaprabhu’s travels.
His travel from, first from Mayapur to Puri after taking sannyas. Then he stays in Puri for sometime. Then his South Indian tour goes all the way down from the Indian coast up till he comes to Pandharpur in Maharashtra.
And then he goes down again. And then after that he stays in Puri where the Pratyatra festival is described. And then so if you consider 25 chapters of the Madhya Leela the chapter 1 and 2 describe Mahaprabhu’s initial travel to Shantipur and his stay over there.
And chapters 3, 4, 5, they are largely describing his travel to Puri. To Puri. And then his 6th chapter describes his interaction with Sarovar Bhattacharya.
And so that is, so he stays very shortly in Jagannath Puri. But he does something dramatic. He transforms the biggest scholar over there.
And immediately he leaves. He doesn’t stay to rest on his laurels. So chapter 7 describes his travel across South India.
Chapter 8 is his encounter, his discussion with Ramanand Rai. Beautiful profound discussion. Then chapter 9 describes his further travels and then chapter 10 describes his return.
So then 11, 12, 13 chapters are Rathyatra, the Gundicha pastime and other things. Chapter 14, 15 describes a few other pastimes in Jagannath Puri. Then there are 3 chapters which describe Mahaprabhu’s travel to Vrindavan.
He plans to travel. He actually travels and then he reaches Vrindavan. Then so as I am saying, it’s mostly travels.
The 19th chapter describes his, broadly speaking, his interaction with Rupa Goswami and his instructions to Rupa Goswami. But that’s only one part of it. There is a lot described about how the Goswamis get themselves free from the service of Nawab Hussain Shah.
And then 20th chapter, 224 chapters are describing his instructions to Sanatana Goswami. So then 25th chapter is describing his transformation of Prakashana Saraswati. So this is a quick overview.
So it’s mostly travels and in between travels there are very deep philosophical discussions and sweet devotional interactions. So in the Prakashana Saraswati pastime, what exactly happens? So there are multiple phases to this pastime and incidentally this pastime is also described in the Adi Leela where philosophically Mahaprabhu’s position is being established in chapter 7 and there how he challenged and converted the biggest philosopher at those times. That is Prakashana Saraswati that is described over there.
So his name was Prakash Anand Saraswati. But what did Mahaprabhu do? It was only after he was enlightened by Mahaprabhu that he truly understood what is Prakash, what is Anand and what is the blessing of Saraswati. So actually Mahaprabhu fulfilled the import of his name.
So that transformation, that philosophical conversion is described in the Adi Leela. And in one sense in the Madhya Leela, last chapter, 25th chapter, the impact is described. The impact means how amazingly Prakashana Saraswati was transformed.
This person was a champion of Advaita Vata. What has he done? He has actually now, he is championing Vaishnavism and even his disciples are championing Mahaprabhu’s teachings. Bhakti.
Kauriya Bhakti. So that’s a dramatic transformation. So just to get a sense of how glorious was his achievement, we need to understand what was the position of Varanasi at those times.
Varanasi was like the intellectual headquarters of Advaita Vata. Prabhupada said that Varanasi is the Vrindavan of the Mayavadis. What he meant by that is, Vrindavan is the capital of devotion.
So that is their capital, that is their headquarters. that makes Mahaprabhu’s accomplishment even more remarkable. It’s like say, arch rivals, India and Pakistan are arch rivals in cricket.
So if India and Pakistan have a match in India and India defeats them there. Okay, you defeated on the home territory of the World Cup in Australia and India defeated them there. Okay, it’s a neutral territory.
But if India goes to Pakistan and defeats them in Pakistan, that is extraordinary to go in the opponent’s territory and defeat them there. So Mahaprabhu is going to the headquarters of the opponent and defeating them there, defeating him there. So it’s that remarkable.
And so how did Mahaprabhu achieve this? Mahaprabhu is so great in philosophy. His philosophical acumen is so brilliant that nobody could challenge him. He would certainly be victorious.
Yes, but if we start ascribing everything to Mahaprabhu, he is omniscient, he is God, he can speak to anyone and everyone. He is wiser than everyone because he is omniscient. Yes, that could be one way of looking at it.
But then there is nothing much we can learn from it. If we want to learn from the past times, we have to see what Mahaprabhu is doing and see what can be the lessons we apply from it. So it is going to be difficult for us to ever, for most of us or for any of us for that matter, to come to the level of philosophical erudition that Mahaprabhu has.
So does that mean that we can’t do outreach to influential people? We will not be successful unless we are that scholarly? No. Scholarship was only one part of Mahaprabhu’s, we could say, repertoire. His arsenal, what all weapons he used, what all resources he drew upon.
He captured their hearts with his humility and his sensitivity. So let’s try to look at this and these two virtues are what we will discuss today. And we will see how we can apply these two virtues in our own life also.
So let’s begin and I will be using a powerpoint over here to illustrate these virtues of humility and sensitivity. So let’s start. So first of all what is humility? Some people in the corporate world they feel if you are humble, everybody will walk on top, walk over you.
You cannot be humble. You have to be assertive. So humility, you could say, humility means the humility is a profound concept and I am just approaching it from one perspective.
One way of understanding humility is it means to not let our ego come in the way of our purpose. Not let our ego come in the way of our purpose. What does it mean? It means, say, Prabhupada when he was in India, India was still a pious country and Prabhupada was respected as a sanyasi.
And especially Vrindavan, he was respected as quite a dedicated, devout sanyasi. In contrast, when Prabhupada left that to go to America, what happened was Prabhupada, nobody knew him. He was just a strange old man.
Before he was going to America, Sumti Murai told his sponsor, she told him, Swamiji, if you want to speak Bhagavatam, you come to my house. Every day I will hear Bhagavatam from you. And she was respectful.
She was earnest. But Prabhupada didn’t want that kind of ritual hearing of the Bhagavatam. If Prabhupada had simply been concerned about his ego, how much am I being respected, he would actually have been respected more in India.
At least initially. As compared to America, nobody cared for him. He had to struggle to find where I wanted to stay.
When one of his accomplices, one of his associates, he attacked him and he had to run out and he had to ask people, can you arrange for me to stay here? So Prabhupada, when he was staying with his disciples over his side, initially they had no idea of his exalted stature. So when they had to use the restroom, Prabhupada would stand in the queue. So Prabhupada would say that I have worlds by respect.
But Prabhupada saw these people are spiritually receptive. So he focused on their purpose. So okay, if I am disrespected, okay, it doesn’t matter.
But I will focus on their purpose. They are spiritually receptive. They are hearing about Krishna.
Then I will focus on that. So let’s try to understand humility from this perspective a little bit more. If we pursue our purpose for boosting our ego, then that’s not humility.
That means if I speak about Krishna and I am concerned how many people are coming for my programme, how many people are appreciating me, how many people are glorifying me, then what will happen is that is lacking in humility. If I am simply doing a service to boost my ego. But on the other hand, if I speak about Krishna, then people will think I am a great preacher, great speaker, great scholar and then I will become proud.
Therefore, I will never speak about Krishna. We can’t give up our purpose in the name of not having ego. So what do we need to do? We need to put aside respect and disrespect considerations for fulfilling our purpose.
If I am respected and that respect helps me to reach out Krishna’s message to others, that’s wonderful. But sometimes some audience may be not of being respectful in one sense, but they are actually seriously inquisitive. They ask difficult questions and by humbly, carefully, logically answering their questions, actually we may do greater service.
So we put aside respect, disrespect considerations to focus on our purpose. That is humility. So humility is not devaluing ourselves.
It is valuing our purpose more than our ego. That is the essence of humility. Let’s see how Mahaprabhu during his interactions with Prakashna and Saraswati demonstrates this particular virtue.
So his humility in Varanasi, how he demonstrates humility. So one aspect of humility is that we are so concerned with our ego that if we are not respected, we just give up. So Mahaprabhu did he do that? Initially when Mahaprabhu came to Varanasi and he was performing Hari Ram Sankirtan, people were getting attracted.
So the Mayavadi sanyasi says, this is not the duty of a sanyasi. A sanyasi is meant to study Vedanta. Why is he not coming and discussing Vedanta? Because he is dancing on the streets like a sentimentalist.
He is a less hitlerian person. So when he was being disrespected like this, there was a Maharashtrian Brahmin who had met Mahaprabhu and he was very captivated by Mahaprabhu’s effulgence, Mahaprabhu’s devotion, Mahaprabhu’s ecstasy, Mahaprabhu’s beauty. So but then he went and met the sanyasis because they were very respected in Varanasi.
They were like the intellectual rulers of Varanasi. And so when he heard them criticising Mahaprabhu, he felt very hurt and he came back and reported to Mahaprabhu. So Mahaprabhu said, if you people don’t respect me, why should I stay here? I’ll just leave.
He didn’t do like that. He said, I have to share Krishna Bhakti. There is that famous vision where Mahaprabhu says, I have brought so many fruits but nobody is wanting them.
What should I do now? So he wants, I want to distribute these fruits. So even if people are reluctant, I want to distribute these fruits. That was Mahaprabhu’s focus.
On the other hand, Mahaprabhu didn’t go to the other extreme. And he didn’t say that, oh, these are so respected sanyasis, they are scholars. At that time in mediaeval India, Advaita was as influential intellectually as science is in today’s world.
If somebody says, oh, you are unscientific. Most people who hear this will just intellectually dismiss this, such a person. So like that, oh, you are not Advaitic.
You are intellectually worthless. So that was the level of respect that Advaitavad had and Advaitic sanyasis also had. So they are so respected, they are so expert.
So if I contradict them, if I say, oh, the teaching of Vedanta is not Advaitavad, it is Bhakti. Won’t it be arrogant for me? How can I be arrogant like that? So Mahaprabhu didn’t think like that. Why? He was not concerned about his ego, whether I may come off as arrogant.
No, he was focused on his purpose. And that’s why when finally, initially Mahaprabhu didn’t want to meet the Advaitic sanyasis, but the Maharashtrian Brahmin, he felt that these sanyasis, they are not understanding Mahaprabhu. So he wanted to arrange somehow a meeting between them and Mahaprabhu.
So he arranged to invite them to his house and he then begged Mahaprabhu, please come and visit my house. And Mahaprabhu understood what was going on, but he appreciated the heart of that Maharashtrian Brahmin and he said, yes, I’ll come. So he came there.
And then when all the sanyasis were sitting and Mahaprabhu arrived, instead of, sometimes in elite assemblies, people are very conscious of what is the seat given to them. If I’m a special guest, do I have a seat on the stage or not? If not on the stage, I’m a VIP. I should at least be in the first row.
Sometimes this kind of especially among influential people or famous people, they are very conscious of the seating arrangements. So the Vishwa Hindu Parishad one time tried to unite all the Hindu groups. And they arranged a conference.
But then what they tried to do was they tried to, they said, all the traditional Hindu groups, the Sringeri Maat and to some extent, the Sri Vaishnavism or Madhava Vishnavism, some of the groups from Varanasi, they gave all them front seats. And the other spiritual teachers, say those who are famous in India, whether it be, whether it be, all of you know the popular spiritual teachers in today’s world in the last one or two decades. So those who are quite popular, they put them in second, third, fourth rows.
And after half a day, most of these influential spiritual teachers left. And they said, okay, all these traditional groups might be there, but we are having more followers today. And if you don’t give us a new respect, we’ll be here.
And that whole attempt to unite Hinduism didn’t work. Because what happened was that the traditional forms of Hinduism don’t necessarily have the teachers belonging to traditional forms of Hinduism don’t necessarily have the widest reach today. The popular teachers of Hinduism are often people who don’t have much affiliation with any of the traditions, formal affiliation at least.
So anyway, the point is that who sits in what position is considered very important by people. But Mahaprabhu, he didn’t consider all of you sitting, I want a seat right in the middle, I want a prominent seat. He actually sat down at the very place where who sits, the place where people would wash their feet, he sat near that place.
The idea is there is a place for sitting over there for the person who would offer water for washing other people’s feet. That’s basically like a servant. So Mahaprabhu sat in that position and in this way he demonstrated the mode of Das, Dasan, Udasa.
Now why did he do that? He was captivatingly attractive. Mahaprabhu is Bhagawan and the Brahman comes from Bhagawan. So the Advaitavadis were attracted to Brahman.
They could actually see the Brahman effulgence coming from Mahaprabhu. The Sanyasi is so effulgent and he is sitting in such a low position. So that humility was what softened their hearts.
And they said Oh no, why are you sitting here? Please come and sit with us. Mahaprabhu said no, I am okay. And they themselves got up and they came to Mahaprabhu and they offered Mahaprabhu a helping hand.
They led him and they brought him to a seat over there. So what did Mahaprabhu do? By this he opened their head and heart to his message. And that’s how he was able to eventually transform them.
So that is his humility. Humility means to put aside our ego so that we can focus on our purpose. So this is how Mahaprabhu demonstrated humility.
Now how did he demonstrate sensitivity if we want to consider? What does sensitivity mean? Sensitivity means we need to be aware of others emotions and the impact of our emotions of our actions on their emotions. That means if we are speaking some words, if we are doing some actions, how is it affecting? We need to be aware of that. And then the willingness to modify our actions for avoiding unnecessary negative responses and for eliciting desirable positive responses.
So what happens when we are sensitive in this way? We make people emotionally comfortable so that they can hear the spiritual message. When Prabhupada was invited for a college programme in Europe, so that time there were a lot of influence of radical left communism among the students. And they were all about power asymmetry and power differentials.
So the devotees are having a big asan for Prabhupada on this stage. And the students started clamouring, why are you sitting on this big stage? Or big seat? Why do you need that big seat? Prabhupada tried to reasonably explain but they were just not able to do that. And after the programme got over, Prabhupada told his followers next time you organise a programme, don’t have such a big asan for me.
Just have a simple chair. So Prabhupada’s focus was not on whether I have asan or not. His focus was on whether I am able to transmit the message or not.
So ok, if this asan is triggering some negative emotion among people, then no need for the asan. So that is sensitivity. So when we are sensitive, what happens? We are able to reach out to people.
So what is Mahaprabhu’s sensitivity? Sensitivity means to understand how people will react to certain things. So that was a time when many people would react negatively to somebody from the bhakti tradition. They must be sentimentalists.
And Advaita-wise they would respect a lot. So what Mahaprabhu did is, Mahaprabhu actually took sannyas from Advaita sampradaya. Just so that people would have a positive emotional reaction when they would meet him for the first time.
Oh, ok. He is from the Advaita sampradaya. Oh, ok.
Must be a great sannyasi. And then he also offered respect to those who were respectable in society’s eyes. You know Mahaprabhu spoke strongly about say Mayavadi Krishnapradhi, Mayavada Bhashashunile Haile Sarvanash.
He spoke all those things. But Mahaprabhu did not speak that those who are Mayavadi are offenders of Krishna, that those who hear Mayavada would be destroyed. But Mahaprabhu did not speak any of these when he was actually interacting with the Mayavadis.
He was very respectful to them. Why? Because they were sannyasis. They were respectable in their own right.
And Mahaprabhu accorded them, offered them the due respect. So that was a sensitivity. If he had disrespected, then that would have triggered a negative emotional reaction.
And he would not have been able to speak that message itself, any message to them. He would not have been able to have a discussion. Sensitivity means to not trigger negative emotions unnecessarily.
So why does sensitivity matter? If we are not sensitive, then we make it difficult for others to hear us, to focus on our message. So instead of we becoming the channel for the message, we become the obstacle for the message. The way we are talking prevents people from hearing what we are speaking.
So what do I mean by this? Let’s consider some words like the word cult. Prabhupada uses that word quite often. The cult of Shri Mahaprabhu is spreading all over the world now.
And today’s world, for most people, as soon as they hear the word cult, they start thinking, oh, this is a very insular group of indoctrinated people who are being manipulated and doing terrible things, anti-social, criminal things. So nobody wants to be a part of a cult today. During Prabhupada’s times, the word cult basically meant a group.
Actually, even in 1960s, the word cult had started having a negative connotation. But when Prabhupada learned his English in 1920s, at that time, the word cult had a fairly positive connotation. Or at least a neutral descriptive connotation.
Just it meant a group of people. But today, when we know that cult has a negative connotation, we say, Prabhupada used that word, so I’ll use that word. No, that word has negative connotation.
There is no need to unnecessarily alienate people. So just speak what is suitable for them. Use the word group.
Use the word tradition. Nowadays, the word tradition is quite respected. Religion may not be as much respected, but this is what my tradition teaches.
We’ll accept that. I am a part of this tradition. Instead of saying, I have joined this cult, say, I am a part of this tradition.
Oh, okay, nice. So, let’s understand this. Why sensitivity matters? So, being insensitive means, suppose we are giving a class to people who live in, who are habituated to warm weather, to a hot climate, say, in the Middle East somewhere, and there we decrease the temperature of the room to around 10 degrees Celsius or 12 degrees Celsius.
They are habituated to 25 or 30 degrees temperature, and they are so physically uncomfortable. Say, I don’t care, I am speaking about Krishna. But people are so physically uncomfortable that they can’t hear about Krishna.
So just as we don’t want people to be physically uncomfortable, similarly, we don’t want people to be emotionally uncomfortable. And if we have to do some adjustments for that, that’s actually just being sensible. Enabling us to focus on the essence.
Enabling us to help people focus on the essence. So, Mahaprabhu demonstrated sensitivity time and time again. Now, we have that when Shrikanth Sen, who was the nephew of Sivananda Sen, Shrikanth Sen once got very upset because Nityananda Prabhu dealt with Sivananda Sen in a way that he felt it was very disrespectful.
And he just, all the devotees were coming from Mayapur to Puri, and Sivananda Sen just came straight. Shrikanth Sen just left that whole group and came ahead. And when he came ahead and met Mahaprabhu, he offered obeisances.
But he was so disturbed that he forgot to take out an upper vastra, upper cloth. That is the convention in those times. Especially specifically for males, when they are offering their respects to a venerable person, they remove their upper cloth.
But he forgot to do that. So, Mahaprabhu’s servant was pointing out, remove your upper cloth. Mahaprabhu said, don’t disturb him.
He is already disturbed. So, it is not that Shrikanth Sen was always violating the rules. At that time, he was disturbed.
Mahaprabhu said, don’t trouble him further. Don’t disturb him further. That is Mahaprabhu’s sensitivity.
Prabhupada himself was actually, we think of Prabhupada as strong and uncompromising and sharp speaking. Yes, that is true. But that was not the only aspect of Shri Prabhupada.
Prabhupada was actually aware of how his words were affecting people. And he was sensitive. And he didn’t provoke people unnecessarily.
So, Prabhupada was an expert in evoking positive emotional reactions from people, if that would help them in serving Krishna. So, when he was in India, he would tell his Indian audiences that this message of the Bhagavad Gita is from India. And India… But what is the situation today? I have to get people from America to teach India’s message to Indians.
This is your message. Learn it and share it with all over the world. There are so many people who are hungry for this message.
Thirsty for this knowledge. So now, somebody could say that actually the Bhagavad Gita is spiritual knowledge. India is just a bodily conception.
Why is Prabhupada perpetuating bodily conception? No, Prabhupada was triggering the national cultural pride and the positive emotion that comes from that and using that to engage people in Krishna’s service. So, sensitivity basically we could say means engaging people’s emotional energy in bhakti. Ensuring that people’s emotions help them come close to Krishna and don’t push them away from Krishna.
So, now, this is as I said, Prabhupada was strong and uncompromising but Prabhupada was daksha, more than that. He was expert. So, strong speaking, we may say, Prabhupada wanted to be sensitive, Prabhupada wanted to be strong.
Yes, he speaks strongly. But what is strong speaking? Strong speaking is not about how loud is the volume of our speech or how judgemental are the words coming from our mouths. Strong speaking is about losing your voice.
Really? Just now you lost or constantly you have been losing? Are you able to hear me now? Yes, Prabhu. Okay. So, you are seeing the power point also? Yes.
Yes, Prabhu. So, I was saying that strong speaking doesn’t just depend on the volume of our voice or the judgmentality of the content of our speech. Strong speaking is about how strongly what we speak attracts people toward Krishna.
If our strong speaking ends up repelling people from Krishna, then we are simply defeating Prabhupada’s purpose. We may be quoting Prabhupada, we may claim that we are following Prabhupada, but we are actually defeating Prabhupada’s purpose. So, here I will just talk a few points about how Prabhupada also wanted us to be humble and sensitive in outreach.
So, this is somewhat long but very important quote. I will read through it and then I will elaborate on a few points in it. So, Prabhupada is saying, now I want that we shall recruit more and more our men amongst the intelligent class of men.
Because they are a little educated or they have got some wealth or fame or ability, so they will be sometimes little puffed up. But that is alright. They deserve it.
It is amazing, they are puffed up Prabhupada and then they are Maya. You see, they deserve it and that is alright. Now, we shall have to learn the art how to approach such higher class of men and attract them to apply ourselves to this Krishna consciousness process of self-realisation.
Prabhupada is not saying that they are ignorant, go and enlighten them. Prabhupada says we have to learn the art, not that we have the knowledge, we just give it to them. No.
We have to learn the art of how to approach. What is that? Just go and speak to them. You are ignorant and I am enlightened, I am not enlightened.
No. Learn the art of how to approach. Prabhupada is saying.
And then that requires much tact. It is amazing. There is strong speaking and there is tact, full speaking.
So, Prabhupada is saying much tact is required. That requires much tact and we shall have to expect to meet all challenges by sharp minds. So, Prabhupada is not saying they are ignorant and they are arrogant and that is why they are arguing.
They are sharp people and they are making challenges. We have to prepare to meet their challenges. And then further, this is the letter to Balwant, December 13, 1972.
But if we remain always absorbed in remembering Lord Chaitanya, how we converted so many intelligent men, even sitting for three days and nights to hear them speak without himself speaking anything. This is referring to Mahaprabhu hearing from Sarum Bhattacharya and eventually converting him, transforming him. And if you remember how Krishna was so much patient to explain everything to Arjuna, even Arjuna was speaking like a fool.
So, this is Arjuna almost, the entire first chapter Krishna doesn’t speak at all. And Krishna hears Arjuna. So, in this way, being always tolerant of others and appreciating their points of view.
This is another amazing point. They are in Maya. They are ignorant.
No. They appreciate their points of view. I have the truth.
Scripture is truth. Everybody is wrong. Prabhupada is not saying.
Appreciate their point of view. It will be easy. If we do this, it will be easy matter for us to convince them gradually to join us.
So, here Prabhupada is recommending tactfulness, respectfulness, appreciation, tolerance. So, what is going on over here? This is very different Prabhupada from what I have heard about. Now, Prabhupada is far bigger than our conception of Prabhupada.
You may know a lot about Prabhupada, but there is so much more for us to know about him. One way to understand what Prabhupada is saying over here is about respecting people who are achievers we can say in the world. Who are VIP, who are celebrities.
We can expand our understanding of God Consciousness. God Consciousness or Krishna Consciousness. What does it mean? See, when we interact with people we should see people from our spiritual perspective, from the Krishna Conscious perspective.
So, quite often what we do is, we often see what they are doing or not doing in relationship with God. What does that mean? These people eat meat? Terrible! This person has impersonal conception? That’s an offence to Krishna. So, we focus primarily on what they are doing in relationship with God.
But actually, another very important aspect of God Consciousness is, of Krishna Consciousness is seeing what God is doing in their lives. How is Krishna acting in their lives? What does that mean? They may not have any relationship with Krishna, but Krishna still has a relationship with them. Krishna is still present as the Paramatma in their hearts.
He says, I am in the hearts of everyone. Krishna says, He says that I am the well-wisher of all living beings. So, that means that Krishna is acting in their lives.
So, if they have attained some success in their lives, if they have attained some fame, that is also the grace of Krishna. Without that, how could they have attained it? So, we see how Krishna is acting in their lives. And, yes, they may have got some wisdom, they have got some virtues, some skills, and we see that this is all Krishna acting in their lives.
Krishna making some arrangement, Krishna blessing them. So, if we focus on that, then, it is easier for us to see how we can connect them further with Krishna. And, when Prabhupada went to America, he could have just focused on the fact, oh, these people are breaking all the four regulative principles.
In fact, we could say, their regulative principle was to break all the regulative principles. Prabhupada didn’t focus on that. He was focused on all.
Prabhupada said, Krishna has sent all of you to me, to assist me in my Guru Maharaj, in my service to my Guru Maharaj. So, what is Prabhupada saying? What is Krishna doing in their lives? Not what they are doing. And, of course, we can see what people are, how people are acting, but focus on how Krishna is acting in their lives.
And now, if we try to acquire this vision, every interaction with everyone can actually become an exercise in Krishna consciousness. Okay. What spark of spirituality is slightly even active in this person? What kind of wisdom they have, which can make them receptive to spiritual wisdom? So, it becomes a journey in discovery when we try to focus on how God is acting in these people’s lives.
So, with this understanding of Krishna consciousness, let’s try to appreciate the quote of Prabhupada. Prabhupada is saying they deserve to be puffed up. What does he mean by that? So, we need to respect people for what they have achieved.
And what they have achieved in their terms. See, we may say, oh, all material achievements are just kamal, dal, jal, jima, talmal. They are just temporary.
Okay, they are temporary. But achieving them requires talent, requires commitment. So, if people have that, if it were that simple, everybody would be great achievers.
Why do some people become achievers? Because, you may say, that’s just because of their destiny. Well, that means they worked hard and did good karma in their previous life. And it’s not just previous karma, many people may have talent, but not everybody who has talent is able to transform that into achievement.
Because many people don’t have commitment. So, that is also to be considered. So, we need to appreciate them.
And more importantly, what we have to see is, not just what they are doing again, what Krishna is doing in their lives. If they have some special ability, if somebody is a great cricketer, somebody is a great movie star, somebody is an author, they may not be doing anything in relationship with Krishna, but they have special abilities in their particular field. So, Krishna says, I have ability in people.
So, that we need to see, this is Krishna manifesting as the special ability of this person. Our Krishna says that, everyone’s opulence is a spark of my splendour. So, that means, if somebody has fame, somebody has power, somebody has knowledge, even it would be material knowledge, those things are sparks of Krishna’s splendour.
So, we see how Krishna is acting in their lives, how Krishna is giving them these opulences. Now, they may not be using those opulences to come toward Krishna. That’s okay.
But Krishna has given them those opulences. So, we can think, we can appreciate, that can also include our Krishna conscious vision. And then we can say, okay, how can these abilities, these opulences they have, how can I connect them with Krishna? How can I help them come closer to Krishna through this? George Harrison had singing ability and Prabhupada said, write songs and sing songs about Krishna.
So, Prabhupada did not say, it’s all illusion. Prabhupada didn’t say that. You have been given ability, use it in Krishna sense.
The second point is, learn the heart of how to approach such higher class of men. What does this mean? Learn the heart. So, Prabhupada is saying, just because we are right, or just because we know what is right, doesn’t mean we know the right way to present it.
So, what does this mean again? I have the truth. I have shastric knowledge. Okay, fine.
But, how can I present it in a way that these people can understand? Some of us, we may think that Prabhupada’s example of how to say, share spiritual knowledge with scientists is, how Prabhupada spoke and life comes from life. Actually, Swarup Damodar Maharaj, he asked Prabhupada specifically. He was there.
He was the main person in the conversation of life comes from life. But he asked Prabhupada before the first scientific conference that he organised in 1976. He said, Prabhupada, you are so strong and cutting when you speak about a scientist.
So, in our interaction with scientists, do you want us to speak like that? Prabhupada said, no. You be polite, you be respectful, you be courteous, you be perfect gentleman. And he said, you speak my points in their language.
So, their language. So, scientists have their language, their terminology, their way of presenting. So, we need to present in that language.
That’s what Prabhupada said. Bhaktivinayana Institute was a specialised institute for doing not just scientific outreach. Actually, the purpose was all kinds of intellectual outreach.
So, normally, we think of language as a means of communication. But actually, language is also more of thinking. That means different people think in different ways.
So, a person born in the 21st century will think very differently from a person who was living in the 19th century or the 15th century. Or even a person who was born in the 20th century, second half. So, different people just have different languages.
They have different ways of thinking. So, what does it mean? You need to talk with people. Not just talk to them or talk at them.
Talk to them means talk down to them. I know, I am enlightened, you are ignorant. No, talk with them.
How do you understand this? If they are not able to understand, then we understand how they are thinking and then we adapt our presentation accordingly. And the last point is appreciating their points of view. This is amazing.
You may say, from the Shastric point of view, you are wrong. What Prabhupada is saying here is appreciate their point of view. Don’t just judge their point of view from our perspective.
Understand why they think the way they do. Don’t evaluate their thoughts, understand their thinking. So, Mahaprabhu actually he knew Advaitha Vadi.
He knew how Advaitha Vadi’s think, thought and that’s how he was able to especially with Sarvam Bhattacharya he heard Sarvam Bhattacharya’s explanation and then he pointed out to Sarvam Bhattacharya how his explanation of Vedanta Sutra was inadequate. And then he explained how a more coherent explanation of Vedanta Sutra came from a personal perspective. And he was able to persuade him.
So, don’t evaluate their thoughts, understand their thinking. This is atheistic, this is materialistic, this is Mayavadi. Okay, you may evaluate but more important is why do you think like this? Understand their thinking.
Once we understand their thinking then we can say within their thinking how can I reach out to people? So, sometimes we say let’s get to know the background of people. For some people getting to know somebody’s background means basically digging up dirt on them. Salacious leaning, oh you are such an advanced devotee now but I know what you did at that time and that time and that time.
So, that’s like finding the skeletons in people’s cupboards. But actually to understand people’s background means to understand what is on their back and to understand what is under their ground. What does that mean? That means there is something on our back that will burden us.
So, different people have different burdens. So, somebody may have been associated with some religious group where they were cheated or they were manipulated and that burdens them when they come to Krishna. So, those experiences burden them.
We have to understand. Just because somebody is asking difficult questions or having lot of doubts doesn’t mean that that gives us the right to say you are samshayatma and you are vinashyati. You are going to be destroyed.
Na ayam lokosti na parona sukham samshayatmana. You are going to be miserable in this life and you are going to be even more miserable in next life when you go to hell. You don’t have any right to speak to anyone like that.
Understand their background. Understand what is on their back and what is under their ground. Under their ground means some people have deep rooted insecurities, fears because of their upbringing or their life experiences and such people may be very closed.
That doesn’t make them necessarily spiritually hostile or negative. Well, they may need some special attention. So, appreciate their points of view.
If we do this then we can actually reach out to people much more effectively. Now, what about not compromising? What about speaking strongly? Yes, they are also important. So, I’ll conclude with one slide which is the balance of the two things.
So, effective speech. This is based on 17.15 in the Bhagavad Gita. So, Krishna says, speak sathya but also speak priya.
Speak what is hitha but also speak what is anudvega karma. So, I’m putting this as sensitive and sensible. Sensitive is that which doesn’t agitate people’s mind, that which pleases, that which is pleasing.
And sensible is that which is sathya that is truthful and that is hitha, that is beneficial. So, we need to be sensitive and sensible. If we are only sensitive but not sensible then what happens? Then we are like doctors.
We are like a doctor who doesn’t give injection to a child because the child says I’ll feel too much pain and the doctor thinks this child will feel so much pain, how can I give them injection? And we just don’t, the doctor doesn’t give the injection. That will be insentimental. Doctor has to do their duty.
The doctor should, can’t care so much for the child’s present feelings as to not care for the child’s future where the disease will become worse if the injection is not given. So, we don’t be so sensitive as to stop being sensible. But at the same time we can’t just say I’m being sensible and I won’t be sensitive.
That is like what? Suppose a doctor is going to do surgery and the surgeon says I won’t give anaesthesia. I don’t have time for that. I’ll just cut the body of the patient.
The patient will have to go through unbearable pain. It will be very very difficult for them. So, the doctor gives anaesthesia then the patient can go through the surgery better.
Otherwise the patient will just jump out of the bed, push the doctor away and run away. Neither is the patient cured nor the doctor has done the service. we may say actually I’m speaking the truth and it’s for your benefit.
But the way you’re speaking the truth is causing me so much agitation. I don’t want to hear from you. I’m going to go away.
So, we may say I’m caring for your future. But if you don’t care for people’s present feelings the way our words are impacting them right now then we will actually end up alienating them. So, what does injection in this context mean? Sometimes we may have to speak unpalatable truths.
And what does anaesthesia in this context mean? It means that humility, sensitivity, it means developing a warm relationship. So, within that warm relationship when we give the light of truth, people will be much more receptive to it. In the early days of Prabhupada’s movement, Prabhupada was giving the light of truth but his accent was such that many of his early days followers couldn’t even understand what he was saying.
But what they could very well understand was the warmth of his personality. He cared for people. He paid attention to everyone of them.
He gave time to whoever wanted. So, they were touched by that. And then even if Prabhupada challenged some of their conceptions, countered their misconceptions, they could take it because that light of truth was given within the warmth of the relationship.
The surgery was done after the anaesthesia. So, humility and sensitivity in this context enable us to do the new anaesthesia by which we develop a warm relationship and then we can do the surgery of removing people’s misconceptions. That’s what Mahaprabhu did with Prakashan Saraswati.
And that’s what we can also try to do in our interactions with people, especially influential people, if you want to bring them closer to Krishna. So, I’ll summarise. I spoke broadly.
Four points today. First, I started with what is humility? Do not let our ego come in the way of our purpose and explain how Mahaprabhu demonstrated that humility in Varanasi. The second was tolerance.
Sorry, not tolerance. Sensitivity. That means be aware of others’ emotions and adjust our behaviour to elicit positive emotional responses from them.
We discussed how Mahaprabhu was sensitive and throughout we have been discussing examples of Prabhupada being sensitive also. That was humility and sensitivity were the first two parts. The third part was Prabhupada’s quote and his explanation that we need to learn the art of reaching out to a higher class of intelligent people.
They are puffed up, they deserve it and we need to appreciate their point of view also. So, God consciousness doesn’t mean to see what people are doing in relationship with God. It also means to see how God is acting in their lives.
So, we can just see this person puffed up because they are in Maya. All their opulences are also Maya. No, their opulences are Krishna’s and Gauti.
Krishna is acting in their life and has given them this. So, we appreciate that and then we see how can this be connected with Krishna. And then learning the art means the learning of how to approach them.
That means that we don’t just speak at people or to people. We speak with them. We understand where they are coming from so that we can connect with them and appreciate their point of view.
Doesn’t mean that we say that everything that they say is right but it means rather than just evaluating their thoughts we try to understand their thinking. To know their background, to know what is on their back, what is under their ground. Then within their current way of thinking we can bring them closer to Krishna.
And lastly I talked about 1715 Bhagita, the balance the balance of sensitivity and sensibility is what will bring effectivity to our speech. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
Thank you so much Mr. Chandracharan for giving me a wonderful presentation, completely different perspective. So, thank you so much. Devotees, anyone has questions? Looks like Amruthangu has a question.
Go ahead. Amruthangu. Hare Krishna.
Prabhuji, please accept my humble obeisance. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Thank you very much Prabhu.
That was very insightful and so many practical trips. Yare dekha taraka ho Krishna Upadesh. That’s the instruction but how to do it, you really clarified it.
Prabhu, the sensible and sensibility what I’m considering is basically its relationship with people. You need to have a relationship. And when you have a relationship, then it is something which is not palatable.
The other person is open to listening, rather than just us coming and giving him and justifying that, oh, because Prabhupada said this or because Shastra said this, I’m right. But in relationship, Prabhu, it takes time to build. And many a times there are situations like meeting with the public book distribution or if you’re doing class or something like that.
It may not be one-on-one. It’s just general. So how do we maintain this sensibility and sensitivity so that the message becomes absorbed, taken well? Yeah, that’s it.
It’s not easy. But two, three things we could do is, even if you’re speaking to a public audience, maybe we can get to know the audience by us talking with the organisers, trying to understand from the organisers, what kind of people are coming, what are their concerns. So generally, spending some time with those who are organising the programme, those who know the audience, that is one way.
That is helpful, very helpful. Second is that especially if a particular area is our area of service, is our Guru Datta Desh, we can say. If, say, we are trying to reach out to managers, if we’re trying to reach out to engineers, if we’re trying to reach out to, say, doctors or particular class of people, then maybe spending some time to understand that demographic.
Maybe read something about them. Maybe if there are some devotees in that community, spend some time with those devotees. Learn from them.
That is helpful. When Prabhupada was in America, he when he was initially in the house of Sally and Gopal Agarwal, he actually in Patanjali, Pennsylvania. So Sally Agarwal, in her memory, she says that Swamiji was so eager to know everything about America.
He wanted to know how the American, how the laundry works, sorry, how the vacuum cleaner works, you know, how to put the money in that machine so that the laundry gets done over there, how the supermarket works. So, now, did Prabhupada go to America to learn all these things? No. But Prabhupada wanted to understand how the American mind works.
So, because he was in America, so he spent that time. So, first is, ask the organiser. Second is, if we are focussing on a particular audience, then spend time in that, trying to understand the demographic.
And third would be, try to, this is difficult, especially when we are in virtual speaking, real speaking, but in general, if we can see the audience, then try to understand which point the audience listens to attentively, which point turns off the audience. And some way, sometimes time may not allow it, but doing some kind of interactions, maybe in between also, to see, ask, do some kind of reflections, giving the audience time to speak somewhere, that also helps. Those are some broad things I can say.
Thank you very much. So, thank you for your thoughtful question. So, many of the points which I have spoken in today’s class, I have written articles on my website Gita Daily.
Gita Daily is a website where I write every day an article on the Gita. There are more than 4,000 articles there. So, I am sending links to some of the articles which some of you may find helpful for understanding how to if you want to know, read more about what we have discussed today, you may find this helpful.
Thank you. Any other questions or comments? I think you have already in one sense delayed, so I don’t want to stretch further. Shall we stop here? Krishna, Navendra? Looks like there are no further questions.
Thank you very much. Hope you are doing well. Yeah, doing well.
Thank you. Vaishnavind ki jai. Vaishnavind ki jai.
Jai. Jai. Jai.
Jai. Jai. Jai.
Jai. Jai. Jai.
Thank you so much, Prabhu. Jai. Jai Krishna.
Very good. Radhe Radhe.