Can association through electronic media be the same as personal association?
Can electronic association be the same as association? I would say, this, you know, it depends on, rather than making a universal statement about this, it is more we have to see individually. Because there are many factors involved. There are different devotees who are attracted to Krishna because of different things.
Some people are attracted because of the social aspect of bhakti. You get to meet people, meet devotees, talk with devotees and devotees are very caring. So that is Krishna centered.
But for some people, the social aspect is what is primarily inspiring. For some other people, it is the cultural aspect that is more inspiring. You come to the temple, take darshan of the deities, drink charanamrut, you know, maybe circumambulate Tulsi.
That's what gives a lot of strength. For some others, it is the intellectual aspect that is more inspiring. So, for them, what is the class, what is the substance in the class? That is what is most important.
So for those, for whom the social and the cultural aspects are the primary sources of inspiration and strength, for them, electronic association will not be enough. Electronic association will not be enough. They will feel, I want to go to temple, I want to see devotees.
They will feel that. Although there is a lot with the social network. Yeah, social networking.
Because it actually is, to find like-minded devotees, it is very difficult. It is very difficult. I fully agree.
To find devotees, to find devotees, to get the view, it is not easy to do. So, I agree. Devotees are very few in number in the world.
It is all about a million people and so many. It is still diverse. And you know, the number of devotees is very minimal.
Definitely is too. Actually, for me, I am an intellectually oriented person and for me, I have found that some of my best friends are in different parts of the world. One friend is in America, one friend is in Japan, one friend is in another part of India.
So, one friend is in Europe. And we have met only 2-3 times. But we exchange emails, we talk on Skype.
That we have done maybe 50 times, 100 times, several 100 times. So, for me, I don't feel anything missing. If I associate with a devotee on Skype or on phone or through emails, I don't feel anything missing.
If there is a meaningful reciprocation, meaningful discussion, the meaningfulness of the discussion is what matters to me primarily. And that's why I said, for me, the primary inspiration comes from the intellectual understanding and the analysis and the application that way. But others are not like that.
So, rather than universalizing it, it is more a matter of finding out what inspires us the most and adapting bhakti. So, for many devotees, through social media, actually, they are attracted to Krishna. In fact, the Pew Research Foundation is a research organization which studies various, especially religious trends.
And they have Pew Research Foundation. So, they found that in the last 10 years, something like 45% of young people who are attracted to Christianity, young means between the age of 15 to around 40. So, almost 40% of them were attracted through social media.
So, that has become a prominent mode of outreach now. That's how the terrorist networks are attracting. Yeah, that's how the jihadi networks are attracting also.
That's true. And unfortunately, ISKCON's presence, we also have devotees have presence of social media, but we don't have a very powerful presence till now. We don't have a very customized presence.
So, we do need to be present there. And that is also one way we have to make our association available to people who are looking for something spiritual. So, to some extent now, electronics and social media has become the language of today's world.
It's just like in the past, Sanskrit was the language of scholarly people. But the Brahmins kept speaking Sanskrit, the common people did not understand Sanskrit. Then the Brahmins lost their influence because in Buddhism and Jains in India, they started teaching in the local languages and people converted to Buddhism and Jainism.
It's only later when the bhakti saints started speaking in the local languages, then people started coming towards bhakti. You know, Sanskrit was the elevated language, but Prabhupada wrote in English. Why? Because English was the language of the people.
So, just as our tradition has always presented itself in the current language. So, similarly, social media is the language of today's world. And through electronics also, we can get association and through electronics we also need to give association.
Otherwise, it is we who will be left out.