If holy places are similar to Vaikuntha and crimes happen there also, how are holy places different from material places?

From: Keshav

Also if crime,greed,lust,anger is present in Holy Place’s as well as among devotee’s community also , what differentiates it from rest of the world ?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Question from Keshav Prabhu. If holy places are similar to Vaikuntha and crimes happen there also, how can you say that holy places are different from material places? Also, if crime, lust, greed, anger is present in holy places as well as among the devotee community also, what differentiates it from the rest of the world? Answer.
What differentiates it is not the…what differentiates holy places from other places is that the spiritual potency is manifested in a far greater way there than it is elsewhere. But, that doesn’t mean that people are deprived of their free will over there. People, whether they are they have begun to practice devotional service or they are not practicing devotional service, always have their free will.
And that is never taken away. So, depending on how people use their free will, there will be the corresponding actions. If somebody decides to commit some criminal activity, some non-devotees, say, materialistic people, they decide to commit some criminal activities, then it is not that the holy place is going to take away their free will.
Of course, there will be consequences for the misuse of the free will. And to one whom much is given, much is expected. So, the special mercy of the holy place is there.
And when that mercy to rise to the spiritual level is neglected and only material activities are engaged in, then there are reactions that come for that sort of misuse and sacrilege of the sacred place that is committed over there. But still, the free will always remains. And same with respect to devotees.
Some practicing devotees may be overcome by lust, anger, greed. That may happen even in the holy place. That’s why they have to be careful.
And just being in a holy place doesn’t guarantee the absence of the misuse of free will by anyone. So, holy places, if we want to use our free will properly, they offer us greater inspiration. They offer us the potency that is there by which we can more easily use our free will properly.
That is the facility offered. But that doesn’t mean that the holy places themselves will not automatically or necessarily prevent the misuse of the free will of anyone. It is actually both in a sense are the mercy of the Lord.
The mercy of the Lord at one level is that He has given us free will because only when we have free will can we freely choose to love Him and thereby experience the ultimate joy of loving all attractive Supreme Lord. And at the same time, if we somehow misuse our free will, then the Lord gives us various facilities which make it easier for us to use our free will properly. And one of those facilities is the holy dam.
So we have to see the holy dam properly as a very potent manifestation of mercy of the Lord to inspire us to use the free will properly. And with this understanding, we should use the free will properly and we should encourage others to use the free will properly and we should lament the misfortune of those who are misusing their free will in holy places and pray that they reform themselves. Thank you.