If senior devotees don’t support our ambitions to expand outreach, what can we do?

Podcast:

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Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

Summary

When ambitions to expand outreach clash with institutional authorities or uncooperative temples, friction is natural. Here is a practical guide on how to balance initiative, senior relationships, and spiritual well-being when facing a lack of support.

Navigating Freedom and Facilities

• The Trade-off: Freedom and institutional facility are rarely found together; if you want complete creative freedom to preach your way, you will likely have to sacrifice institutional resources and senior backing.

• Start Small: When facilities are withheld, stop expecting them and begin expanding in areas where you can make a tangible impact without external support.

• Build a Track Record: Success breeds trust; once you achieve tangible results on your own, it becomes much easier to earn the positive response and cooperation of senior authorities.

Managing Relationships and Mindset

• Suspend Negative Judgment: Avoid jumping to conclusions of incompetence or malevolence when seniors don’t cooperate; remember they manage heavy risks and past failures, so it is best to suspend judgment.

• Seek Open Communication: If an issue is deeply troubling, arrange a face-to-face meeting with senior devotees to express concerns respectfully and gain mutual understanding.

Maintaining a Transcendental Perspective

• Fixed in Purpose, Flexible in Method: Emulate Srila Prabhupada by staying fiercely committed to your core purpose while being flexible and creative with your methods when obstacles arise.

• Protect Your Inner Consciousness: Never let outreach frustration turn your devotional life unidimensional or bitter; ensure you make time for personal sadhana, chanting, and hearing to keep your inner offering to Krishna positive and nourishing.

Key Takeaways

• Balance the desire for freedom by creating your own path without relying on senior facilities.

• Suspend negative judgments toward authorities to preserve humility and inner peace.

• Keep your focus fixed on your core spiritual purpose while staying flexible in your methods.

• Protect your consciousness from resentment by prioritizing personal spiritual nourishment alongside service.

Full Transcription

Thank you.
And basically, different temples don’t seem to be cooperating. Authorities don’t seem to let particular centers flourish or don’t support other centers to flourish. What can we do about it? Well, in general, in our moment, and this is a feature of life beyond our moment also, there are two things which are very difficult to get together.
One is freedom and the other is facility. If we want freedom, then, at least, this is how I want to do things. It’s not a bad thing.
Some devotees have initiative, some devotees have creativity, and they feel this other way, I can’t do this way. I want to do it in a different way. So, if you want freedom, then, it’s quite often that we will not get facility.
Because those who are in charge of institutional resources, issuing facilities, they will also have their vision of how things are to be done. So, then, their vision and our vision may not sync at times. But they are in charge of the facilities and they will not give us some support in support of facilities.
Now, if we want facilities, then, we may have to sacrifice on freedom. That means, the resources we have, the resources we need from the authorities, from the superiors, whatever it is. Then, we may need to ask them, what is it that you would like to do? And then, it’s their vision that the facilities will come much more easily.
This is not a matter of they being selfish or they not wanting us to grow. It is just human nature. Everybody, no matter wherever they are, just like in material life, we always feel that the desire we have or all the resources we have, never match the desires we have.
Somebody has a house, they want a bigger house. That’s just natural. I think that happens in a positive sense in devotional life also.
That our desires to serve Krishna are generally more than the resources we have for serving Krishna. And that happens for everyone. So, all devotees, whatever resources they have, either they are using it for serving Krishna right now or they have some plan of how to use it.
That’s why they don’t want those resources to be very easily given away or distributed. So, sometimes we just have to make that decision. If these are the constraints, if we want freedom, we stop expecting facilities and just start doing something, start expanding in an area where we can expand without the facilities from the seniors, from the authorities.
So, say for example, if we want to preach, we would want senior devotees to come and guide us and give classes and help us. But sometimes they may, sometimes they may not. But if we train ourselves and we start preaching ourselves, I mean, we can’t have as much impact as those who are senior devotees.
That’s true. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t. So, this freedom, these facilities.
Sometimes when we work in a movement, Prabhupada wanted us to cooperate also, we have to find out some area where we can find an intersection where it’s perfectly okay if some devotees need the space much more. Then we need to stop expecting facilities. So, just do what you can with whatever resources you have.
When we do some service, then some of our youthful, some of our younger people who are attracted to us, they’ll start helping us. Facilities may also come. Prabhupada had a particular vision of sharing Krishna Bhakti.
We are not comparing ourselves with Sri Prabhupada. But we have to illustrate it even so. In one sense, Prabhupada, when he went to America, he never really, at least from the initial letters that we see, he never thought of starting a separate movement.
He saw himself serving as a servant of the spiritual master. And the spiritual master’s mission was Gaudiya Mutt. So, it was in one sense, he was thinking that he is simply going to start another branch of the Gaudiya Mutt.
That’s why he took hernias from his godbrothers. He had lived in the ashram with his godbrothers. But then eventually he found that when he was in America, his godbrothers were not ready to offer him any support at all.
In fact, when he wanted to take hernias, one of his godbrothers said that, you come and stay in the ashram. You do service like all other brahmacharis or the ashram residents. We will observe you and then we will decide whether you are qualified for hernias or not.
In one sense, what he was saying is true. That’s a reasonable procedure for anyone to follow. But considering Prabhupada was also a senior disciple.
By that time, he was a senior person, senior disciple. That is an unreasonable expectation for him. So then Prabhupada finally decided that I don’t need any facility.
I am not getting any facility. I don’t need any facility. So he started off.
And even then he wanted to cooperate with his godbrothers. He even said that we will form a body and we will administer a squad together. Prabhupada felt that his godbrothers had written books that were too advanced.
His condition was that devotees will distribute only my books. Later on, devotees can read other books also. Some of his godbrothers didn’t come on board at that time.
So the point is Prabhupada, at a particular point, just decided that he needed the freedom to carry on the movement. And then he created his own facilities. So we have to find out how best we can work in our life.
And there are certain areas, say for example if you consider deity worship standards. It is a problem that in our movement deity worship standards are being raised. And there are reasons for that.
I won’t go into that. Whether those reasons are valid or not, that’s a different discussion. But whatever it is, we are a part of a movement and we can’t really we don’t want to have arbitrarily different standards at different places also.
Some kind of homogeneity needs to be there. So let’s try to find out if deity worship standards we cannot raise in our place because of limited resources, human resources or whatever. Is there some way to expand outreach without necessarily having deities? It’s difficult, no doubt.
But there may be some ways. If we pray to Krishna, if we try to be creative that example which Kunti Maharani used and Kapil Dev also used that the Ganga flows towards the ocean always, let my consciousness flow towards you. Similarly, we can say that Krishna, please let me find a way to keep serving you.
Now, there are many obstacles that will come for our service to flow towards Krishna. There are services going out to new people, more people. So sometimes one path doesn’t work, we try another path.
And in some ways if you can find out areas where we can achieve something tangible without needing too much facilities. Facility can only be permission without needing anything from our seniors. And then when we also have something tangible to show this is what we have done.
Then it is easier to expect that kind of positive response or trust or extension of facilities from the seniors. So it is always beneficial for us in general when we don’t get positive response from others to not assume the negative about them. That negative assumptions could be that broadly it can range from incompetence these people are just not good at working to malevolence.
Malevolence is that these persons are out to hurt us. They are bad. So that is the kind of presumption our mind makes.
And it may be true also, we are not saying it is not true. But especially when we are dealing with other devotees and senior devotees who in their way also have served Krishna for long. So it is best not to make that negative assumption as much as possible.
And okay, I can’t understand why they are not supporting. If we have the facility then if something is troubling us very much, then try to have a face-to-face meeting, express our concerns and try to get some understanding. So, but beyond that there is this there is we could put it as this zone of one aspect of humility means that to not make negative judgments based on people’s negative behavior.
It’s difficult because we do have to make judgments at times. But it could be some other thing going on. Sometimes senior devotees have to consider many many things.
And they may have certain experiences of some projects expanding very fast and then everything crumbling. That’s why they might not even go slow now. We don’t know.
So without getting into that zone of making too many negative judgments just suspend judgment. It’s like saying that everything is alright is difficult. Saying that these devotees are wonderful that is difficult for us.
Because we feel that they are not cooperating. And that means just a ground reality. They are not supporting.
But why they are not supporting? Let’s suspend judgment. Maybe Krishna will reveal to me later. Maybe I can get a talk with these devotees and I’ll understand at that time.
So suspend that judgment right now. And focus on trying to serve Krishna in our way. And there is a circumstantial way of looking at things and there is a transcendental way of looking at things.
So circumstantially we can see that maybe my service is obstructed because of this this this this. And we need to work at a circumstantial level also. Actually Prabhupada found that in India outreach was not happening effectively.
Indians were not taking seriously. Prabhupada did make a circumstantial shift. Prabhupada came to America.
He observed that in America things were easier. America also had to struggle quite a bit to make things happen. But eventually they did happen.
So at a circumstantial level we keep trying. We keep making adjustments, finding out different strategies. We can say that Prabhupada he was fixed in purpose and flexible in method.
His purpose was to spread Krishna consciousness. His method was try making back to Godhead, try working with his Godbrothers, try starting League of Devotees, try writing the Bhagavatam and then finally he decided let’s try coming abroad. After coming to America also Prabhupada tried so many things.
So some things worked, some things didn’t. So fixed in purpose, flexible in process. So at a circumstantial level we keep trying various things and see what works.
And when something works we keep moving forward. But when we look at things from a transcendental perspective what it means is that we see this is ultimately about our relationship with Krishna. And we want to offer various things to Krishna.
We want to offer a beautiful temple, we want to offer a flourishing community. We want to offer many things to Krishna. And that’s wonderful that we want to offer all those things to Krishna.
But from Krishna’s perspective ultimately what he wants is our heart. What Krishna wants is our consciousness, our heart. And if in trying to serve Krishna and making various offerings to Krishna if our heart itself is becoming contaminated, if we are feeling resentful, if we are feeling angry, if we are feeling frustrated, then now circumstantially if something goes wrong that kind of feeling coming is natural.
When Prabhupada says it one time when he was trying to distribute back to Godhead and a bull hit him or a cow hit him with a battal on the ground. I was thinking why did this happen? So that is ok. Feeling perplexed is fine.
But if that becomes our habitual disposition constantly feeling irritated, constantly feeling resentful, then that is unhealthy. So Prabhupada, even when he was an unknown swami wandering on the streets of New York, people who met him were struck by his fearfulness. They were just happy speaking about Krishna.
There were 100 people speaking to him. He was one person ready to hear. There was no one.
Writing books to those who will future here. So we can say that our most fundamental offering to Krishna is our consciousness. then if we are getting too irritated, resentful or just overall negative, then maybe put a little pressure, let’s Krishna ourselves and give ourselves a little time to do the activities that make us feel connected with Krishna right now.
It could be a little more hearing. We all among the various services that we want to do, we all will find something that nourishes. We could be just hearing bhajans or singing skirtans or just beholding darshan of A S D T, whatever it is.
We find that gives us nourishment. We do that and make sure that even if we cannot offer one thing to Krishna in the outer world, our consciousness is pleasant. Of course, Krishna is also pleased when we take responsibility for serving him.
And taking responsibility also means anxiety. And that means that if say, if somebody was demolishing Juhu temple and Prabhupada would have peacefully standing Hare Krishna, I’m contented. No, you have a responsibility there.
So that’s understandable. That’s expected. But overall we don’t get too, we don’t let ourselves make our Krishna consciousness unidimensional.
Unidimensional means Krishna consciousness means I should be doing this service and this service should be happening successfully. Even if that doesn’t happen, I can still be Krishna conscious in this way. So that way make sure that this doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to give up our managerial position or we have to give up our outreach ambitions.
It just means that we need to find in our present situation what are the things that can nourish us right now and make adequate time for them. And that way we will ourselves be enriched. If not enriched, at least contented.
At least not be agitated. So in one sense sometimes it works differently. Sometimes the sadhana is difficult for us because of various reasons.
But then our seva gives us nourishment and then we can continue doing our sadhana. Sometimes our seva causes exhaustion and that time our sadhana gives us nourishment. So we have to look at our own life and find out what are the things that are causing us exhaustion right now and what are the things that are giving us nourishment.
And we find a healthy balance between the two of them. So overall I think that’s the best way to nourish. Three things I said.
First is freedom facilities. We won’t get both. So try to find a service where we can make a tangible contribution without needing facilities.
And that will ensure track record. Second is with respect to senior devotees, try to avoid making negative judgments and seek clarifying when possible. But just suspend judgment.
Suspending negative judgment is a sign of humility. The last part is while we are trying to make circumstantial adjustments, from a transcendental perspective we know that Krishna is accessible to me even now. And we make sure that we do the activities that keep our consciousness positive.
Even if we are not able to offer anything in the outer world to Krishna, at least the offering of our inner world, the offering of our consciousness is available.