How can we spiritually help those in totally materialistic degraded life?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
How can we help someone who is very disconnected from God? Say, lives a very unhealthy life, drinks alcohol and doesn’t see God anywhere. See, for us, God acts primarily through his representatives. That means most people in this world don’t see God directly.
What they see is godly people. And they see some people who are godly, then they believe. It’s something more.
And the worst violence happens when godly people behave in ungodly ways. Then people become very alienated. So, I was in Texas.
There I saw, maybe it was an atheist or someone. He put a bumper sticker on his car. It said, Oh God, please save me from your preachers.
So, actually, God saves us through his preachers. But if they come off as self-righteous, as moralizing, as holier than thou, then they are alienated. So, basically, the point which I am making is that whatever level a person may be at, if they can get good association, if they can associate with somebody who is spiritually minded, somebody who is devoted to God, then that association will trigger something spiritual within them.
So, rather than thinking that somebody, because they are godless, because they are materialistic, because they are addicted to unhealthy things, that’s why they cannot come to God. You can see that, okay, wherever they are, actually, they are still parts of God. They are all children of God.
So, from Krishna’s perspective, nobody is beyond redemption. Everybody is redeemable. So, what we focus on is that we just try to connect them with some good association, in some way or the other.
Now, that is up to our intelligence to find out, okay, even within their way of living, somebody, they like, say, violin music. But sometimes, within music itself, they may find something which is spiritual but which attracts them. Now, devotional music can sometimes be soothing, but there are devotional devotees also who have mantra rock bands and things like that where it is spiritual, but at the same time, there is a substantial amount of energy in that.
So, that is what may attract them. So, we may have to use our intelligence to find out, okay, this is the circle of bhakti. And this is the circle of this person’s interest.
At first glance, they appear to be entirely non-intersecting. But if you look deeply, you will find there is some intersection somewhere. And we try to connect them through that intersection.
So, at the very least level, there are many people who were from a similar background and they have become spiritual. They have become devotees. They have become spiritually minded.
They have become advanced bhakti yogis also. So, often, we can just share their stories with them. There is a website called howicame.com. That’s how I came to Krishna Consciousness.
That is the idea. So, there are amazing stories of people from all kinds of backgrounds who have practiced bhakti. So, sometimes, it’s a story like that that may attract them.
So, now, we also need to know that everybody is at a different stage in their spiritual evolution. So, we can try to help them. But sometimes, they may just not be ready right now.
So, what we do is that we keep the door open for them. It’s not we don’t have to shame them into taking up a spirituality. We just encourage them, present them spirituality as a track.
Truly as possible. And then, even if they don’t take it up now, they’ll remember. You know, I met a nice person.
And later on, when life brings them up to some difficult turn, at that time, Krishna is also present in their heart. Krishna is present in the hearts of everyone. So, if we have just created a good impression about Krishna, good impression about devotees, good impression about bhakti, then Krishna will prompt them at that time.
You know, try that out. Read that. Meet that person.
Go there. So, we may sometimes be able to connect them to Krishna using our intelligence and finding out some intersection point. Or sometimes, we may just sow the seed and they may come closer to it.
Because they may just not have that desire right now. So, the desire can be kindled by right association. But even after desire is kindled, they also need to let the spark to grow.
So, if they don’t do it right now, they may not take up. So, we can just keep the door open for them. Never should we, because they are not taking up spirituality, we shouldn’t judge them as bad and we should never slam the door in their face.
If they are not doing this, get lost. It’s not like that. We just… we understand that whatever they have done, Krishna is still in their hearts.
Krishna has not left their hearts. So, Krishna still loves them. And we can try to create some bridge between them and Krishna.
And when they walk across that bridge, it’s up to them. You know, Prabhupada, when he came to America, he was an old elderly Indian man who had no experience of American culture, whose accent was very Indian. And he had no idea about how he would actually communicate with Americans.
So, he prayed that, Oh Lord, that You are in the hearts of everyone. So, he said that, my dear Lord, You please make my words understandable so that they will take up Your message. So, the point is that we simply see ourselves as instruments and we try to offer the connection with Krishna to them.
Whether they take it immediately or eventually, we do our part. And if they have some misconceptions, everybody has some self-sabotaging beliefs. I’m not good enough for this.
That could be one self-sabotaging belief. Or another could be, I’m too good for this. Both are actually self-sabotaging beliefs.
But if during our interaction with them, we can find out what is their self-sabotaging belief, then we can also help them to fight off their beliefs. So, there are some blocks which keep us all from growing. And the expertise of a good spiritual teacher is that they give a generic spiritual message, but when they’re interacting with specific people, they identify the block which that particular person is having and they try to remove that block.
So, if we can get those people, get that person, just to meet some spiritually advanced person, some good spiritual association, some spiritual guide, then they will be able to find that block and help them address that block. So, I talk about four things basically. First is that their current situation should not bias us.
They can or they can’t. They are also parts of God. So, we should be open to giving them the opportunity.
And the opportunity primarily comes through good association, through spiritual association. So, God manifests in this world primarily through the godly people, through His devotees. And secondly, we can find out what is their specific interest.
So, their circle of interest and bhakti circle. Find out some intersection by which their interest can be kindled. Although their first reaction is, this is not for me.
Then they can say, oh, this is what I’m interested in. And this is here also. That’s how they can come.
At the very least level, food is something everyone is interested in. So, Krishna Prasad is a common point of intersection for everyone. And then third point I said is that, actually, even if they don’t take up, we don’t have to judge them as bad.
Just keep the door open for them. And lastly, concluded by saying that, if they have some blocks just stopping them, their self-supporting beliefs, if they can be identified and addressed, then from wherever they are, they can start taking their money forwards. Does that answer your question?