If we correct with good intention, isn’t that good enough?

Answer Podcast:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Devotees feel that if something is done with loving intention, then that itself makes it right.
I desire your good, that’s why I spoke like that. Yes, that loving intention is good, but sometimes good intentions alone are not good enough. This is, for example, very true in the medical field.
If a baby has cut her hand, the mother wants the baby to heal the baby, to cure the baby. But if the mother is not a doctor, she can’t heal, she has to take to a doctor. So, just the good intention, we understand that in, say, when somebody is wounded, or say, if my laptop is spoilt, or whatever.
Even if there is some senior devotee whom I want to serve, and their laptop is spoilt, if I am not a computer expert, good intentions alone are not good enough in solving the problem. Although the intentions are good, to have good intentions. The same way, even in relationships, even if I have good intentions, if the good intentions themselves don’t necessarily guarantee correct judgment, and they themselves don’t guarantee sensitive expression, just because my intentions are good, does not mean that I will pursue correctly, nor will I necessarily express in the best possible way.
So, these are also additional precautions we need to take. This is one problem which happens especially in the devotee community, that we assume that because my intentions are right, therefore, whatever I am doing must be right. So, sometimes some devotees feel that, actually, I am speaking this because Krishna is inspiring me from within my heart to speak this to me.
You need to give this. Well, I think, we need to be a little cautious about somebody claiming that Krishna is speaking this to me from within the heart. So, who knows? Now, that person’s intention may be very good, but that itself does not guarantee correct judgment.
Unfortunately, when there is an assumption that good intention is just good enough, often people just don’t pay attention to other things. Because my intention is good, therefore, I can speak whatever I want. Then that itself becomes, unfortunately, a license for insensitivity.
Because I know this is the right thing, and what you are doing is wrong, therefore, sometimes we may neglect not just devotional sensitivity, but even basic human courtesy. Because we think I am right, and this is the right thing that needs to be done. So, good intention is good, but good intention also needs to be assisted with proper intelligence to evaluate the situation, and proper expression so that whatever we are saying is taken, as you said, not defensively, people don’t clamp down and become defensive, but people take it sensitively, people take it in the right spirit, and then they can be helped by whatever we are doing.