How to deal with devotees in ISKCON who criticize ISKCON?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, question from Gaurachandra Prabhu. How to deal with devotees who are part of ISKCON but have the tendency to criticize the movement? Answer, we have to, when we come to Krishna’s movement, we have to be clear about our purpose.
What have we come here for? We have come here for trying to learn to love Krishna, trying to serve Krishna, to go closer to him. So, we need to cherish that association that enables us to go closer to Krishna. And we need to, if there are other devotees who don’t inspire in that cause, then we need to keep a distance from those devotees.
So, the important thing is, that we have to be clear about our purpose. Now, as far as devotees who are criticizing the movement, now, it’s not that all critics are offenders. Sometimes, there are things which are wrong in the movement and they need to be corrected.
So, when somebody is criticizing, we don’t have to label those devotees as bad devotees. But generally speaking, we all have to choose our battles. That means, we have limited time, we have limited resources, we have limited influence and with that limited time, resource, influence, we have to see what is the best that I can do.
Sometimes, some devotees may criticize with the genuine intention of improving things. And if they have the power or the position to improve things, that is good. But if that criticism is simply creating a negativity, just discouraging, this is wrong, that is wrong, and devotees don’t feel encouraged to practice bhakti and an overall culture of fault-finding comes up instead of Krishna-finding.
Now, we are here for Krishna and certainly, thousands of people all over the world have come here because they are seeking Krishna and they are finding Krishna at different levels. So, as far as finding Krishna is concerned, we can find Krishna in Krishna’s moment if that is what our purpose is. So, keep a distance from devotees who criticize and find devotees who are like-minded.
So, if that devotee that means, we have a particular inspiration in our practice of bhakti, we like certain things in bhakti and just focus on doing those activities wholeheartedly. To the extent we keep doing those activities wholeheartedly, we will be inspired, we will be able to connect with Krishna and we will grow spiritually. And who knows, Krishna may, by his arrangement, help us to have more influence in future by which we can also make things better, we can play our part in improving things.
But right now, we have to keep first things first, that means our primary purpose is to ourselves connect with Krishna and to learn to love Krishna and we associate with those who inspire us to do that. And if things are wrong, genuinely wrong and need to be corrected, then if we have the power to do that, we can be a part of doing that. But our focus should never become to keep looking at what is wrong and to keep criticizing what is wrong and to go on a campaign for that.
There is much that is right in Krishna’s moment and the most right thing is that we all have opportunity to go closer to Krishna. So we tap that opportunity and encourage others to tap that opportunity. That’s how we can move forward in our devotional lives.
Thank you. Praise Krishna.