If a senior devotee states something factually wrong in a Bhagavatam class what should a junior devotee do?

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Question. Suppose in a Bhagavatam class if some senior devotee who is giving a class makes a technical mistake or a factual mistake, then how should a junior devotee go about pointing out that mistake or correcting it? After the class, if not after. Should it be after the class or how should it be done? Answer.
A lot depends on the relationship. The two broad principles are there. In general, we all tend to commit mistakes.
We are all human and sometimes something might just be a slip of tongue, something we might just misremember something or something we might have actually been misinformed. That means three things are there. That we just speak wrong although we know the right thing.
So, I can’t judge that. So, for example, this happened with me also. See, I may quote that this is from Bhagavad Gita 18.6, but actually it is 18.5. So, it is just a slip of the tongue.
Or I may misremember it that time. That means I have heard it correctly, but at that time I recollect it false. So, for example, Prabhupada says at some point and place in one lecture that Dashrath had two wives.
So, this is simple. Prabhupada knows it. It is not that it is a major thing.
But it is just a misremembering at that time. Prabhupada does that for many verses also. Maa methi so paandav.
Instead of Maa methi so arjuna, Kaunte, whatever like that. And sometimes we may be misinformed also. That means we read something which is unreliable.
I remember one devotee was giving a class and he said, in some country in Europe, Belgium or something, not Belgium, some country, he said it is completely atheistic. And the audience started laughing. They said there is one devotee who had come from that very country.
He said we have many Christians there. We have many devotees also there. So, it is not atheistic.
He had read it somewhere. So, basically there are various possibilities. Now, depending on the two things, the relationship and the gravity, things need to be dealt with accordingly.
So, firstly, if we don’t know the devotee very well, or if we know the devotee and we know the devotee is a little prickly, gets annoyed or gets angry, or for that matter, if others around us are likely to misunderstand us as arrogant or proud when we point out something, even to that devotee, we can’t say whether that devotee will feel bad or not. Then, it is best not to speak it at that time. Even in the Bhagavatam class, in a comment, sometimes you may ask that I had heard like this, but you said like this.
How do I understand it? So, then this is the mode which we use. Arjuna used to say, How am I to understand that you instructed this knowledge to Sun God when you were born after the Sun God? So, he is not saying that you are wrong. Arjuna is simply, How am I to understand? So, like that, sometimes in a humble way, we can ask that, I had heard so and so, but you are saying so and so.
How do I understand it? Then the devotee may himself say that, Oh, it is a slip of a tongue or something like that. I’ll check it out or whatever. So, even if we ask, it’s best never to say that.
You know, you made this mistake. Even if we sometimes in some situations, when we are commenting, we can after the class ask a question, which is actually, in which we are pointing out some inconsistency. That’s possible.
But that has to be done, as I said, considering that devotee’s disposition and the disposition of others around us and our relationship with them. The perceptions are important. And whether we go to that devotee and afterwards tell them.
So, it’s possible that instead of telling publicly, if we tell privately to that devotee or ask privately, then the devotee will also not feel so bad about it. And there may be a discussion also. I heard about this.
I must have heard. I’ll check it out. So, discreetly telling privately is perfectly fine.
Now, as a writer, I very much appreciate such inputs. Because while writing, many times I might just quote what’s wrong. I might get some reasoning wrong.
So, every article that I write, I have three, four devotees who are my close friends. They go through the article and they review it and then they give some comments and based on that, I publish the article. You should try to do that.
And so, there are many senior devotees who are actually appreciative of inputs like this. And there may be others who are not. So, maybe once we can give some corrections, make some points like this and see their feedback.
Based on that, we decide whether to tell it again or not. Now, in my early days, I used to have that concern that, oh, but if some senior devotee is speaking this, others will also speak this. And that way, misinformation will spread.
Over time, I have realized that it is very difficult to avoid the spread of such misinformation. Because anyway, we are not going to be present in all classes. So, there are devotees who may speak things which they hear from here and there, which may not be very reliable.
So, for example, we hear something from Guru Sadashastra and to illustrate that, we might take examples from various sources, which may not be correct, actually. Or sometimes, some points from Guru Sadashastra itself, we may not be able to understand or speak properly. So, whichever way it is, it is difficult to regulate or correct this on our own.
So, in general, I would consider the relationship preserving the relationship more important than maintaining the accuracy of the message. Because if a preacher is responsible, that means there is a preacher who has, there is a senior devotee who has spoken in the class, and we have heard and we know, okay, this is a mistake. Then what about other devotees may speak it and repeat it, if they say like that.
Then, actually speaking, all those who are hearing and who are preaching eventually, it is their responsibility to check the facts, check the references. And in general, in classes, quite often, we may speak stories, where we may not give references. And in general, serious preachers, even younger devotees who are seriously preaching, they will also know how to take things with a, with a little bit grain of salt.
Even if a senior devotee is speaking, it is not that everything that is spoken is going to be absolutely correct. It is not that we have to approach senior devotees’ classes with an attitude of doubt. But rather, there has to be just a healthy awareness that in the normal mode of speaking, we are all human, we are all fallible.
And sometimes some mistakes may slip in. It is especially so we have to be cautious like this when some sensational facts are told. Sometimes someone may make doomsday prophecies.
All water is going to be exhausted in 10 years. Everybody is going to die. Something like that.
Somebody may say that the soul does not fall from Vaikuntha, the soul falls from Brahmajyoti. There are statements like this. These are understood to be debatable statements.
So if somebody is quoting them uncritically, either the first person who is quoting this senior devotee or later people who repeat it, they are not very serious scrutinizers of things. And when people are not very serious scrutinizers of things, often they don’t appreciate those who are serious scrutinizers. So we have to find like-minded association.
One of my devotee friends is a Sanskrit scholar. He told me that many devotees when they quote verses, they practically massacre the Sanskrit. They mispronounce so many words.
Not only mispronounce, even if they pronounce properly, sometimes they, while explaining the meaning of the word, sometimes they may explain this word in this way, it’s not very accurate. But he says that, they are not trained in Sanskrit. I am.
So if I start observing this all the time, then I will be hypercritical. So we understand that devotees are sharing Krishna’s message and by their life and by their words, they are inspiring others to serve Krishna. And while doing this, not every devotee is analytical, intellectual, research oriented, where they will get all their facts right.
So if for us, facts are important, it should for a responsible, serious teacher, for any intellectual responsibility, they should be important. But if we find that others don’t consider this fact so important, then rather than spending too much time with them, trying to point it out that this is wrong is wrong, the better try to associate with devotees who are a little more, little more careful, intellectually careful, and give their classes, discuss with them and that way we can move on. But just like, sometimes we take philosophy very seriously and should be taken seriously also.
But just like somebody is playing, doing something with them and while playing Kartal, somebody makes a minor mistake. So, somebody who is musically very sensitive will immediately notice it, but others may not notice it immediately. And it’s not necessary that every small lapse has to be pointed out and corrected.
But if somebody is doing it continuously wrong, then you might give the Kartal to someone else. So like that if you find that someone has a habit of regularly, regularly quoting questionable points or facts, then either we need to tell that devotee or we need to tell someone who is a senior to that devotee. And if you find that that just doesn’t work for us, that devotee doesn’t change, then we can avoid hearing that devotee’s classes.
It’s as simple as that. Take some devotees, I know that many temples have this kirtans played with loud vampers and some devotees just can’t tolerate that sound. So then they like, they like kirtans, but they can’t tolerate, they leave at that time.
They are not offending the holy name, but the particular way in which the kirtan is being sung over there, that they can’t appreciate. Similarly, if you find something which is too much factual or logical problems, some, then better avoid that. We can respect that person as a devotee, even if we are not able to respect that person as an intellectual or as a preacher.
It’s their practicing bhakti, they are still trying to share Krishna’s message. And we realize that their needs are different, our needs may be different. In general, for intellectually oriented devotees, intellectual needs are very important.
For others, they may not be very important. I remember once some devotee said that in a class that Jiva Goswami, that Akbar met Jiva Goswami. Akbar came to meet Jiva Goswami and Akbar was very inspired.
The whole story he told that how basically when Akbar came to Jiva Goswami’s bhajan kutra, he saw one mystical ring that is all made of gold and jewels. And he felt you are more wealthy than me, something like that. Then I just did some research and I told that devotee that actually, no, he said this happened with Rupa Goswami, not Jiva Goswami.
So then I told him that Jiva Goswami departed from the world in 1515 and Akbar was born in 1505. So he was not even the king at that time. So whether at that time he came to Vrindavan and it was basically, it was very, very, it is very unlikely that historically speaking that happened.
So then he said I will check and find out. And then he checked and he never got back to me after that. So I didn’t speak that in the class.
But then I realized that this is something which sometimes we all just like to speak. You know, Akbar met Jiva Goswami, he became subordinate to Rupa Goswami. They will vote in their lectures.
Yeah, but then this is something which if we counter, we will become unpopular unnecessarily. There are some things which are just myths, which are Gramme Katha. Well, Gramme Katha is too strong a word for it.
Gramme Katha is just gossip. But these are devotional subjects. Just like I think sometimes some devotees may quote past times or with some deities, currently, some past times with some Narsimha deity or some temple deity or whatever.
These are good as this is not a Gramme Katha. It is what is it? It is called a Loka Pramana. There is Shastra Pramana, there is Loka Pramana.
So sometimes Loka Pramana can be accepted as something like devotional folk tales or something like that. But they should not consider the same way with Shastra. So this is something which we all need to adjust according to time.
In general, best to avoid such problems by associating with those who are more intellectually oriented and are more careful in their