Do religionists become self-centered due to believing that God has a personal relationship with them?
Thank you question does the religious notion that god has a personal relationship with us make religionists self-centered and narcissistic answer not at all the understanding that god has a relationship with us makes the devotees of god selfless and compassionate which is the exact opposite of self-centered and narcissistic now atheists may get this conception that it makes people narcissistic because they have a they have a caricature of religious belief and notion of personal relationship with god often when atheists want to want to attack and demonize religion they often take its worst expressions and these may be sometimes exhibiting these characteristics but the the point is that when religion teaches us that god loves us and he invites us to love him back then we have to understand that what does this imply practically yes at one level it may imply that people go to temples or churches or mosques and spend some time there doing activities which religionists would like to believe which atheists would like to believe are a waste of time where people are crying to an imaginary god praying to him and they are wasting time but to actually say that even if one doesn't leaving aside whether god really exists or not for the time being whether does that make people narcissistic which is a it's an absurd idea because so many people spend time in entertainment and they imagine some hero in a movie and they identify with that hero and then they try to enjoy vicarious pleasure in connection with that hero and there are so many cults which come up of people centered on Harry Potter and people centered on Spiderman Batman and Sherlock Holmes so would atheists call all such people as narcissistic as all such people as self-centered no even from a point human point of view different people can seek relief and pleasure in different things so if people can seek pleasure in some imaginary characters who are some who are just products of fiction of some author then what is wrong in people seeking some relief and release in in the notion in the conception of a supreme being now here we even from the point of view of the liberal ideas that atheists would like to profess then they cannot deny religious people of what they what gives them relief nobody forces religious people to go to temples and churches and mosques they go because it helps them in some way you know they get some good feeling and they feel that they are doing something constructive they are gaining something by it and it is not that all the millions of people who go to some temples, churches, mosques they go there just because they believe that this will reward us something in the next life that may be one of the part of the motivation but people go there because they feel it helps them it adds value to their life in this life also not just in the next life it helps them to become more calm more peaceful it gives them some satisfaction and so that is even this worldly benefit that is there so even without going into the concept of the validity or reality of the conception of God still there is no reason to call this narcissistic now second point is that unlike belief in some fictional other fictional characters what is the result of belief in God generally speaking God is understood to be the father of all living beings and we all have a relationship with God and generally the religions of the world encourage people to live good lives charitable lives noble lives respectful lives and especially if we look at the Vedic tradition the conception of God is inclusive it is not that God is of this religion or that religion God is the God of all living beings and he wants he wants he cares for all living beings so it is said Krishna is as related to them in their own family as we are all children of one God and we are all related to him and therefore actually it leads to a greater connection with everyone that also makes people selfless so the yes we have a personal relationship with God or then okay Krishna wants to teach us that Krishna has a personal relationship with us and he wants us to reciprocate with him and to develop love for him but developing love for him doesn't mean just cutting off from the world and devoting ourselves to him it also means connecting with the world in a way in which the world feels inspired to connect with Krishna so for that the Bhagavad Gita overall recommends sattvic conduct of living sattvic is more of goodness where as I said Manik was sensitive, respectful, courteous, helpful even in material ways and that's how the devotee actually becomes a better human being a better person and once the initial hostilities that may be there between the devotee and friends and relatives because of the devotees wanting to live spiritual principles once those initial hostilities subside then even from an objective point of view relatives and friends can see that he or she has become a better person a better human being and ultimately a better friend and a better relative so they can appreciate the positive changes that happen over a period of time that will require some patience so the selflessness of a devotee is such that the devotees want to help everyone at all levels possible not just at the physical level but also at the mental and the spiritual level so that is what God expects us to do that is Krishna's mandate to us that if you love me how do you show that love not just by doing activities that are devoted to me by chanting and studying scripture but also by how you love others how you respond to others how you see me in others and try to act accordingly so yes the scriptures talk about multiple levels of devotees and at the initial level when people are Kanishita Adhikaris when they are at a very preliminary level of devotion they are often quarrelsome they often quarrel over externals and when they quarrel over externals then that leads to conflicts but when they come to Madhyam Adhikari level they learn to see and act appropriately with everyone and the capacity to relate with people with people who are devotionally minded people who are non-devotionally minded the innocent people anti-devotionally minded with the explicitly anti-theistic so that capacity is also very important so there is no question of being narcissistic over here the point here is of connecting with everyone appropriately so the relationship with God actually causes people's relationship with others to expand to develop to become stronger and deeper not to atrophy so far from becoming narcissistic understanding that we have a relation that Krishna has a relationship with us and that we should also develop our relationship with him enables us to become more compassionate and more sensitive in our relationship with others thank you Hare Krishna.