How do we deal with people who become cold or hostile when we share Krishna consciousness with them?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
The question is that when we start talking about Krishna with others because preaching is also a part of our spiritual life and often people become cold or even hostile. So how should we deal with that? Actually, we do want to share our Krishna consciousness with others.
And the mood of that sharing is, Prabhupada explains that just as a person has been sick for a long time with a particular, with some malady and after a long time has found a cure which is helping that person a lot and then whenever that person sees others are also having a similar malady, wants to tell that, okay, this is the cure, please take it, it will work. That is the mood in which a devotee also wants to share Krishna consciousness with others. Okay, I was troubled and Krishna consciousness is offering me relief from my troubles.
Similarly, it can offer relief to others also. That’s why I want to share. But then some people are not ready to accept it.
So when that happens, the Madhyam Adhikari, Madhyam Adhikari is the intermediate devotee. The devotee who is in the intermediate level of bhakti focuses on differentiating between different kinds of people and reciprocating accordingly with them. So for the Ishwara, there is, there is devotion, Prem.
So one way I understand that Krishna is the object of my devotion. And devotee is that Adhineshu. For them I have Maitri.
I develop friendship with devotees. Then Balisheshu, those who are innocent, for them there is Kripa. I try to share Krishna’s mercy and message with them.
And then those who are Dushyatsu, those who are very hostile, those who are, those who are envious of Krishna, for them Upeksha, I neglect them. So basically the idea is we need to recognize that not everybody will be equally receptive. So in our social circle, if we find that people are hostile to our Krishna consciousness or are cold about our Krishna consciousness, then we don’t have to necessarily talk about Krishna with those people.
We can have, we can continue a working relationship with them wherever it is required. And we don’t have to be necessary, we don’t have to be rude to them just because they are cold to us. But we can always find out other people in our social circles who are receptive and we can share about Krishna with them.
We will always find some people who are receptive and by sharing Krishna consciousness with them, we will get also positive experiences in sharing Krishna consciousness and those experiences will help us in sharing with others also who are not so receptive. But over a period of time, if our Krishna consciousness is making us better human beings, is making us happy, people cannot but notice it. They will notice it.
Oh, this person has changed. This person has become a better person and then they will themselves inquire and when they inquire, then we can tell them about Krishna. So in general, whenever we try to do anything new, it is said that we will go through different phases.
Now first, there will be derision. People will laugh at us. This person will become a fool.
What is this person doing? Nonsense. Then if it goes on, if we continue practicing spiritual life, then what will happen? People will say, people will neglect. Oh, this person is just going through some phase.
Some, some sort of, some sort of taste he has got and this person, just as people get attracted to different things. Okay, this person has got attracted to this thing. This is just a hobby which will come and go.
So first stage is, people will mock us. Second stage, people will neglect us. Third is, if people see, oh, day after day, week after week, month after month, this person is doing this continuously, then third stage, they will respect us.
This person is a person of principles. Doing the same thing continuously. They may not tell us that we respect also because they had earlier derided us and they may feel themselves as looking like fools if they start admiring the same thing which they had earlier mocked.
So they may not tell us also, but they’ll respect us. And later on, when some crisis comes in their life, they will know, okay, this person is really connected with something which is true, something which is deeply meaningful. So that is the thing that they’ll follow us.
So when we are going through this phase of people are either mocking us or neglecting us, we should know that this is just an intermediate phase. And over a period of time, if we are faithfully practicing Krishna Consciousness, they will come to a level where they will respect and eventually they will follow. Now, of course, sometimes, this may not even happen in this lifetime.
The soul is eternal and the soul’s journey towards Krishna can take several lifetimes also. So we can be patient. That means if some people are close friends to us, then if they don’t want to talk about Krishna, then we can continue a working relationship with them, but not talk about Krishna so much.
They will themselves observe that we are becoming better human beings and they will turn towards Krishna eventually. But if there are some people who are not so close to us and when we talk about Krishna, they become hostile, then we can keep a distance from those people as Bhagavatam says, upeksha. We neglect them.
We neglect them not because we don’t care for them, but we understand that they are not at a level of spiritual maturity right now where they can understand what we are talking about. So then we want to do good for them and the best way we can serve them is through our prayers. So by praying for them, we can help them also to come closer to Krishna.
So this is the way we have to differentiate between who is receptive right now and who is not receptive and we continue on in our Krishna consciousness determinately irrespective of whether people are receptive or not, but with whom we share Krishna and whom we don’t share Krishna right now, that will depend on their receptivity. Thank you.