If people are nasty to us, should we as devotees just be detached from it?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So if we are detached from the results, if there is a situation where people are very competitive and they can be nasty and there are some bad things about us, should we stay detached even in that situation? Or how should we act in that situation? So the basic principle of a devotee’s life is, as far as our actions are concerned, what is the favourable, acceptable and favourable relationship.
So first I’ll talk from a devotional perspective. And I’ll talk from a social perspective also. So Srila Prabhupada was teaching for almost 40 years in India.
And not many people have become serious devotees. They were coming to him and hearing his classes. They were more of a part of the general pious culture.
They were not interested in meditating the life of astrologers. A few people were coming here and there. So now Srila Prabhupada thought, oh not many people are coming.
And the fact that not many people are coming, that will keep me humble. I said, oh let me get in like this. No.
What did Prabhupada do? Prabhupada went and he interacted with people. And then he interacted with thousands of people. So it is not that people who are negligent of us or people who are disrespectful of us, that is not necessarily a virtue.
So we have to focus on what we are going to do. What is our purpose? Whether it is spiritual life or mental health. And we have to select our association or at least focus within that association on those people who help us in our purpose.
Even devotees help us. If someone is constantly discouraging us, constantly speaking bad about us, then we can respect them from a distance and we can associate with other devotees who are inspiring and encouraging us. And here it is not a matter of detachment or attachment.
Here it is a matter of what is feasible for us.