How should we deal with people involved in non-devotional dharmic causes?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
somebody is attached to a dharmic cause and they want they are attached and there is a political party that promotes that cause and if we stay indifferent to it they say that we are being escapists so how do we deal with that? we see that there are different levels of consciousness at which people will function and we could say ultimately our aspiration is that everybody becomes Krishna conscious at the same time not everybody is ready for becoming Krishna conscious so if we could help people to elevate their consciousness from where they are to one step up that is also a success so if somebody from the mode of ignorance comes to the mode of passion so somebody who is a non-vegetarian becomes a vegan they may not be taking prasad but at least they come one level up that is good, Srila Prabhupada told Peter Barwash who became his follower but not became an initiate follower told him you just bring people to the level of giving up meat to bring them to some level of goodness that is what he did Peter Barwash was a famous tennis player so Prabhupada talked in that way to different people so we see our mission when we are interacting with people to raise their consciousness upwards from where they are to one step up and if we try to raise them too much up it’s like say somebody is climbing up a stair and they can take one step up but if we stand 25 steps above them and we stretch out our hand they can’t link with us at all so we have to see where they are and how I can help them take one step up so in 3.26 Bhagavad Gita Krishna says that do not disturb the minds of people who are attached it’s significant Krishna says that they are attached and they are ignorant they are attached but still don’t entail them in such a way that they can become elevated this is the way the wise person acts it’s interesting that the Sanskrit word is not mind, it’s not mana, it is buddhi that means when people have a particular mental conception they use their intelligence to justify that mental conception and when we speak something which is radically contradictory to that it’s like their whole world view comes collapsing down so it just becomes unbearable for them so what we say is okay, if they are working for a dharmic cause then encourage them to focus on the central principles of dharma yeah, we can talk with them at their level and then okay, if we want to work for propagating dharma at a political level then we can focus on at a political level what exactly is being done what can be done what may not be done because of political ground realities or whatever so rather than just rejecting that we can see how that can be connected and yes, based on whatever, wherever the emotion is invested they will feel good or they will feel bad and to some extent we don’t have to exhibit our lack of emotion just in front of them we have a saying to Indian India in Naragpur he says in the 7th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam that your relatives will always give you suggestions for economic development, you do this, you do this you do this and Naragpur says that don’t just reject them nod your head and do what you are doing so if we just start confronting everyone who has every single idea that they have our whole life will go in that so we may just express some sympathy somebody says if India loses a cricket match India Pakistan cricket match somebody loses and people are just devastated by that and then at that time we just take a holier than thou attitude it will just alienate people so we just have to act appropriately at that act appropriately means that we have to see in this situation what is the response by which we can help people come closer to Krishna so we can’t act too other worldly in worldly situations. One of Srila Prabhupada’s most influential followers was George Harrison he brought the holy name to millions of people.
So there is a biography of his written by Joshua Green Yogeshwar Prabhu so there he describes how he went through a difficult phase after he became he started following Srila Prabhupada met Srila Prabhupada, he was very inspired Prabhupada encouraged him to write devotional songs so he started doing that and some of his songs became very popular but on a few occasions when people had come to hear his music concepts on that day he started telling people chant Hare Krishna people just started booing him booing him in public they had not come there to chant Hare Krishna they had come there to hear him perform music and then his popularity in the charts started going down terribly and started getting negative reviews and then he came to meet Prabhupada and he said Prabhupada I am feeling as if I did all this to get people come to Krishna but I think that for every one person I am getting to Krishna I am sending 10 people away from Krishna because so much negativity was coming and he was why has George Harrison become like this because he is involved with those Hare Krishnas that was the idea that was coming then Prabhupada told him use your intelligence use your intelligence and do it in a way that gradually elevates people so then after that he started composing some ordinary songs and introducing some devotional motifs in between a number of songs one devotional song so he tried to find a healthy balance which enabled him to serve his clientele at the same time help them to rise to higher level of Krishna consciousness so if we are in a worldly situation we have to act in an appropriate way to imagine say in India cricket is a big fan India’s most famous cricketer Virat Kohli becomes a devotee India Pakistan cricket match and India loses that match and after that a post match interview is there why did India lose this match win loss is all temporary important thing is chant Hare Krishna actually you can’t imagine anything that would do worse anti preaching than that isn’t it so we have to act in a way that is appropriate so if in a particular situation a particular emotion is expected we expect that Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that devotees delight in participating in Vaishnava festivals but if there are some other social festivals devotees are participating in that a devotee’s heart is not in that but for social obligations at that time the Devi Pooja was going on in a big way Bhaktivinoda Thakur says we may go for the worship of the Goddess also we will go in the mood that she is a devotee of the Lord but we don’t have to tell that to everyone just go there in a deferential mode so certain things we may have to do according to social expectations we don’t have to just be too otherworldly over there so Bhaktivinoda Thakur says okay not okay their political party has lost they are feeling bad okay just sympathize with them a little bit and move on with our life