If devotees’ children are advanced devotees from past lives, why do many of those children not become devotees in this life?

Transcript

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thank you Hare Krishna question if children born to devotees are already advanced devotees from a previous life then why do so many of the devotees children not become devotees themselves answer firstly a good number of devotees children do practice devotional service maybe they do not practice it at the same level of intensity as is expected of serious sadhakas but they do practice devotional service now we have to understand that the previous life inclinations are one factor purvabhyasena tenaiva riyateya vishopisa krishna describes in 6.43 and 44 this process of how by one’s practice one is attracted again towards spiritual principles but we also have to understand this is only one of the factors this life’s upbringing is one factor this life’s association is another factor and then one’s own free will is also another factor so all these factors contribute now in devotional culture in Vedic culture it is understood that actually it takes a whole village to raise one child up to become a good human being it is not just that child’s own spirituality or just the parent’s responsibility alone because how much can the parents protect the children how much can the parents alone influence the children the parents cannot insulate the children from the rest of the world parents can only guide and today’s overall culture is extremely materialistic and that has its influences so when they go to school in the school and whatever is happening in the rest of the world will affect the devotee community inevitably and so that will affect the children also secondly ISKCON and its first generation was just practically learning everything new the first generation devotees most of them were people who had been brought up in a very different kind of culture in the western culture and then they adopted a devotional culture and their whole vision was that we just have to chant Hare Krishna and get out of this world so the idea of the long haul was not so much there in their minds at that time in the sense that many devotees thought that actually maybe its tomorrow or day after ISKCON is going to take over the world we are going to have the golden 10,000 years going to come up and then we chant Hare Krishna and happily we go back to Godhead so we have to live in this world also and that requires planning Srila Prabhupada had this vision and Srila Prabhupada said the children that are born in the devotee community they are Vaikunta children and they need to be taken care of it is not just the problem of the devotees in general even the leaders were short sighted there is one letter of the temple leaders are telling me to let my child keep my child in the temple only with someone else and go out for book distribution so should I do that so Prabhupada says your first duty as a mother is to take care of your child only after you take care of the child then you can go out and do distribution in the additional time so initially because there was no experience the whole idea Prabhupada presented Prabhupada came at advanced stage and for him it was an emergency spreading devotional culture vigorously but Prabhupada himself had lived in a devotional culture and the devotional culture is based on a long haul so there have to be stable marriages there has to be adequate attention to the children there has to be a proper devotional culture so it has been observed that wherever there are the devotee communities where the devotee children could associate with other children of the same values and could have friendship with them then they could grow up nicely and they could that many of them become devotees afterwards also so unfortunately of course it’s a matter of a very great regret for ISKCON that many of its children in the Gurukuls and other schools they were abused also so there were some people who had this sort of dark inclinations and they abused the Gurukul facilities and that was very terrible very regrettable ISKCON now has child protection office to avoid recurrence of these things and is very vigilant about these things but the point is that this life’s upbringing so first I said is that the overall culture itself is materialistic so the association that people get in the outside world is going to influence so there are many factors there is past lives there is this life’s upbringing there is the association that we get from the larger society and the friends community and there is a very and there is a very strong association with the Gurukul and there is they give up devotional service not so much to not so much because they don’t like devotional service or they are so hungry for materialistic pleasures but just because they feel that they got such a raw deal in their childhood they did not get the normal parental love the normal protected environment that even the other children got so we have to understand the angst of their hearts when they are expressing this and actually in the second generation or as the first generation also especially the leaders are giving a lot of emphasis on building devotee communities and in these devotee communities the devotees often the children often grow up so they go to proper devotee schools and they have many friends among the devotee community and they do become devotees properly and even in the first generation also the children of the first generation children often they do not give up devotional service entirely unless they have extremely bad experiences even when they want to get married they marry some devotee spouse and they follow devotional service of some standards but unfortunately they may not follow very high standards because from in their experience the so often work it out to their detriment in the name of high standards they did not get proper love they did not get proper attention and they feel that those high standards are sort of fanatical so we have to the second generation is learning from the mistakes of the past and we know that the parents duty towards the children is important the children have to be taken proper care of and the leaders are also emphasizing it the overall institution is also recognizing and giving attention so now in spite of these two major problems the fact that many children are still continuing our devotional service at some level that itself is to some extent laudable now in the second generation also actually with proper devotee schools coming up and proper upbringing as well as supportive subculture coming up the number of children becoming devotees in the devotee communities is increasing and it will increase so we shouldn’t if some child is born in a devotee community we shouldn’t sort of consider that because the child is born in the devotee community that child must be an evolved soul and so we don’t have the responsibility to take proper care of the child that is negligence and irresponsibility in our part and we shouldn’t pressurize the children with those expectations or you are a very advanced soul from a previous life how are you acting like this this is ridiculous you know this is we have to see that person’s this life feelings and understand those feelings and accordingly treat them they will need to be given some freedom to express themselves and then when they are given freedom and they are also shown love and care then gradually they will become devotees so we should overall understand that there are multiple factors involved in somebody becoming a devotee or choosing to not practice the service of high standards and we rather than sort of blaming the person or questioning the antecedents what we should focus on is ensuring that we provide the proper support systems by that we will be doing the duty so even the parents will do their best in providing the proper support systems for the children’s all-round growth then the parents do a seva to their child and do a seva to Krishna by that and they will make spiritual advancement and even if the child doesn’t become devotee they continue to they have done their part then they make spiritual advancement by that and that is how karmanyavadika arastha works out in devotees life also so we should focus on what we have not done and try to correct that and not blame the devotee children for not becoming devotees thank you Hare Krishna