If devotees repeatedly back out of services they have committed to, how to respond without becoming irritated?
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Transcript
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Thank you.
See, if we have to do, get some services done and if devotees keep repeatedly saying, I can’t do this service, I can’t do that service, then how do we stay calm? Because we have to get the service done. If devotees don’t cooperate, what do we do? Actually, over a period of time, we ourselves find out, in the devotee community, who is trustworthy and who is not trustworthy. Who is reliable and who is not reliable.
And usually those who are reliable, they are the people whom we can count on. And we want to engage others and help others to grow also. But, we also have to get our responsibilities done.
So, first of all, we need to find out people who are responsible and focus on them. And others, we have to educate people about what responsibility means. And some people, they, if they are not ready to understand that, then sometimes we just can’t rely on them.
So, then we have to make some alternative arrangements. Sometimes it’s, you know, if we are a manager, manager means simply that when nobody else does, I have to do it. It’s like the idea of being a manager.
And it can become too much of a burden. But then, if that is happening, then we may have to take some management decisions and get some people who will do things reliably. So, overall, in every service, emergencies come up.
Ad-hoc situations come up. But, emergencies should be occasional. If emergencies are regular, that means it’s not just an emergency.
There is a managerial issue over there. We have to have some managerial overall by which the emergencies can be avoided. So, maybe we have to get people, we may have to move from volunteers to people who are paid for their services.
This is one example I am saying. There have been some managerial decisions that have been taken. It’s like, you know, trains or cars or planes, sometimes they get late.
That is unavoidable. But, if all planes are regularly getting late, and that means the airplane company or the airport, they are not managing properly. So, occasionally there will always be pressures.
But if that’s regularly happening, then there is a managerial overall required. And overall, you know, if we appreciate those devotees publicly, we appreciate those devotees who are consistent, those who are reliable, those who are trustworthy, then that also inspires others to become like that. We don’t publicly shame those who are not.
That’s undesirable. But, publicly appreciating those who are being responsible, that also inspires others to take up similar service, to become similarly responsible. And quite often it is that, in the devotee community, there are some people who want to do services, but they are not getting services.
And there are others who are given services that they want, they are looking for a way out. So, if we just cast our net a bit broader, and look for people outside our normal frame of reference, we may find there are people who are eager to do services. There are many people who are actually grateful to be given an opportunity to serve.
So, if we do that also, then we can deal with that issue. So,