Do neophyte devotees also represent Krishna? How?
Hare Krishna question from Vinayak Prabhu do neophyte devotees also act as representative of Krishna can you explain how we represent Krishna answer when we talk about representing Krishna it is not an official mandate that Krishna appoints this person as representative this person as Krishna doesn't appoint this person as representative yes there might be sometimes some official thing that might be there from say the movement of Krishna's movement like the scorn may decide ok these are preachers but the perceptions about bhakti perceptions about Krishna perceptions about Bhagavad Gita that people get are determined not just by the official representatives of a particular movement every movement may have a particular spokesperson who will speak on behalf of that movement of the media but apart from that official spokesperson practically every devotee is a spokesperson in the sense that whatever devotees speak other people when they hear that and they develop perceptions based on that now of course that devotee may not have the position as is enjoyed by as is had by the official spokesperson of the movement but still the devotee also acts as a spokesperson and then by word of mouth oh this devotee said this about this it spreads so essentially when we talk about being representative of Krishna it simply means that in this world we all form perceptions about others now how do we form perceptions about others of other groups of people say people may think that now there are some racist jokes about Sikh people so people like to think of Sikh people as often most of these jokes portray Sikhs as somewhat less intelligent now this may not at all be true and it is actually an absurd thing to brand a particular race of people as less intelligent it is offensive actually simplicity to the point of view of misleading but my point is just as because of the circulation of such jokes there is a perception that sometimes some people have about it now who has created this perception there is no official anti-Sikh Sikh hater who has done that but that perception has been created so similarly every devotee when people today in the world they don't have much knowledge of scripture they don't have much systematic knowledge about God they don't have much clear knowledge of bhakti and there is no forum for educating them so if they want to perform perceptions about it whom do they get it from it's not that they are officially going to a temple and going to meet a preacher and going to ask some question and get a perception by that they will acquire perceptions about Krishna and Krishna bhakti through whoever they meet who seems to be practicing Krishna bhakti many times people become alienated for religion because they acquire their perceptions about religion from pseudo religious teachers those who are masquerading as religious teachers but are out simply to get a following to get money and to exploit people's religious faith so because of that people in general get alienated so the point is that all of us do represent Krishna we may not be official representatives of Krishna but everyone whoever is around us they form perceptions about Krishna and Krishna bhakti based on our behavior so if people see that oh this person was earlier not so responsible earlier not so sensitive but now after practicing after having practiced bhakti this person become more sensitive, more responsive so that means this is what has made a change bhakti is good the student is studying in college and the student becomes a devotee and then the student's performance improves people think oh what made the student take better than earlier, I want to know about it so through that also so through our professional performance and through our overall behavior irrespective of the specifics of how we are doing sadhana and bhakti, people may not care how much round we are chanting people not care much about how much shastra we are reading this is our sadhana for developing our relationship with Krishna and it is important it is what will give us the strength and the purification by which our other behavior will change by which we will have greater sense control so that we can study better and perform better by which we will have greater sattva guna by which we can become sensitive and responsible but this is not what people see devotees may see each other's seriousness by seeing the devotional standards which they are practicing but others see general human criteria you know how sensitive one is, how responsible one is, how competent one is and so if we are not if we become less responsible less sensitive or worse still if while practicing devotion we act immorally then people start thinking that religious people act like this Krishna devotees act like this that means Krishna bhakti is bogus and Krishna bhakti is filled with hypocrites or worse still Krishna bhakti makes people into hypocrites so they talk about big moral things and they act immorally so this is how we may create a negative perception among people and that's why we all represent Krishna in some small or big way and we can take this at one level as sobering that oh now that I am a devotee I should behave in a responsible way so that I don't commit spiritual violence by destroying people's faith by damaging people's faith in Krishna rather I can do spiritual good by acting properly and by attracting people to Krishna through my conduct and if this seems too sobering we can actually see it encouragingly also because now that we are trying to represent Krishna if we pray to Krishna he will help us so that we can change faster and represent him better. Thank you. Hare Krishna.