How can an IAS officer help in sharing Krishna consciosness since India is a secular country?

From: Rishi
Please tell how can an IAS officer serve Srila Prabhupada and his mission.
How can he help in preaching and book distribution ?? As India is a secular country and IAS officer in his public life is expected to be secular and not promoting any particular religion. Despite all that, if an IAS officer is a vaishnava, how can he help in preaching activities and book distribution especially, with all the resources and power he possess ?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna questions from Rishi Prabhu please tell how an IAS officer can serve Krishna Prabhupada and his mission how can he help in preaching and book distribution as India is secular country an IAS officer in public office is expected to be secular and not promoting any particular religion despite all that if an IAS officer is a Vaishnava how can he help in preaching activities and book distribution especially with all the resources and power he possesses answer we have to not have a very narrow definition of what assisting in Prabhupada’s mission means it is not that there are only specific activities that will lead to the spreading of Krishna consciousness spreading of Krishna consciousness is something which happens in expanding concentric circles so even if people become more favorably disposed towards Krishna consciousness that is also one level of spreading of Krishna consciousness on the other hand if we distribute books this happened in this consistory in America that we distributed a lot of books but often devotees use tactics which made them unpopular and eventually in several places especially in the airports the book distributors were warned and banned and in some cases in Dallas and other places Malkrishna Maharaj had to stop book distribution for some time because the public sentiment became very strongly against it so my point is not at all to discourage book distribution but my point is that we shouldn’t have stereotype notions of how one can influence one can share Krishna consciousness if one is an influential position in society just by being in that position and trying to do one’s duty competently and not highlighting, not concealing one’s devotional connections one can by that itself have a significant impact what that means is that if people see that a person at such a respected position is also spiritually inclined and is also competent materially then that itself is an outreach now we don’t have to necessarily think that preaching has to be done in specific ways itself if I am a IAS officer it’s not that I have to do something that would be against the codes of the country which I am living in and that alone, only by that alone I am doing the devotional service so having said that, first is be open minded about how one can do outreach and once we are open minded we will find there are so many ways in which one can do outreach so that means that for example when Sri Prabhupada started Bhaktivedanta Institute the purpose of Bhaktivedanta Institute was not to make scientists into devotees although that may also happen sometimes but the primary purpose was to increase the prestige of ISKCON by placing Krishna Consciousness on the scientific map of the world that means we also have presentations of Krishna Consciousness that are scientifically respectable and that the Krishna Conscious worldview is not just a religious outdated worldview but it is a scientifically tenable worldview it may not be acceptable or accepted by mainstream science but it is presented scientifically and it is scientifically reasonable it is actually intelligible, it is not accepted, so if somebody goes into scientific outreach or academic outreach with the expectation that I will arrange an international conference and at the end of the conference all the scientists who come to the conference will be wearing 16 rounds one is going with the wrong expectation, one will simply frustrate oneself by this kind of expectation so every area of outreach has its own definitions of success so scientists are intellectuals and intellectuals take a long time to convince, to change their minds and these are going to influence people in a long way, so even if they become more favorably disposed towards Krishna Consciousness, that in and of itself is a significant step forward and their positive attitude is also very important for the long term long term spread of Krishna Consciousness so there is a whole field called ISKCON communications where ISKCON communications is not directly concerned with outreach with sharing Krishna Consciousness but creating a positive atmosphere for the sharing of Krishna Consciousness so when somebody goes to an interfaith meet the goal at an interfaith meet is not to convert people of other religion to our religion, it is to build warm and friendly relationships so now somebody may say what is the use of this you know, the use we should not underestimate it especially in countries where Krishna Consciousness is the minority religion and is very easily branded as a cult by its opponents then when there is presentation of Krishna Consciousness along with the religions that are considered mainstream, that has enormous effect, positive effect so the branding of the cult as a cult doesn’t happen and devotees can do greater can do outreach with less fear of persecution so similarly, if one is in respectable position one should be open minded and find out what are the ways in which one can do outreach so one could be that without necessarily promoting an institution or a religion one can promote wisdom and values and present Krishna Consciousness as one way in which wisdom is being shared and values can be internalized so secularism doesn’t necessarily mean opposition to religion secularism essentially means not imposition of any one religion on everyone else therefore what the important point to recognize is that if in our talks, in our discussions we present wisdom, we talk about values and then present spirituality including Krishna Consciousness as a means to promote values that is also quite acceptable and one can try to explore who are the other devotees if there are any who are working in a similar field according to one’s own situation one will have to decide so one may consult senior devotees who are responsible and who can guide us and then we can find out specific ways generally what are the means of sharing Krishna Consciousness first and foremost is our example and our example just doesn’t mean that people see us chanting Hare Krishna all the time that is not going to attract people as much as our being responsible and competent even in our material life and when people see that, people want to know what makes this person tick and then they come to know that’s Krishna Consciousness that will attract people so that first is our example second is in our talks and in our discussions with others formal and informal we can emphasize values and wisdom and present Krishna Consciousness as a way for self empowerment for developing values and for internalizing wisdom, then thirdly depending on the situation we can help devotees in various ways as you said in getting permissions or in removing obstacles, so there are two extremes in this, one is that there are bureaucratic hurdles created by the government because of certain reasons and other is that one goes, one tries to bend all the rules to open up things for devotees to be able to share Krishna Consciousness even if one is not able to do the second thing which is okay because India is a secular country at least one can try to help so that there is not undue opposition unnecessary opposition and with the minimal obstruction devotees can go on sharing Krishna Consciousness but the most important point is that rather than focusing on specifics that can be easily branded as religion one can focus on universals, that will be accepted by people, I mean specifics means if one talks about book distribution per se and tries to facilitate or encourage that, it will be possible in certain situations where it is well and good, but more important if one talks about values and say helps in organizing seminars or things like that where the presentation of Krishna Consciousness is more universal more generic, more scientific and not sectarian, then one has far greater scope for sharing Krishna Consciousness, so overall don’t be stereotyped, there is no need to be stereotyped about how to share Krishna Consciousness be open and Krishna will guide from within and we can consult senior devotees also about how we can do this Thank you, Hare Krishna