Is association of nondevotees like the kissing of a snake?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
In association of devotees like non-devotees like the kissing of a snake is actually the word non-devotee itself is an inadequate description of the wide variety of people who live in this world. According to the Bhagavad Gita philosophy itself, we have goodness, passion, ignorance.
And that is also a very important classification. Even devotees are meant to be transcendent. Devotees are not transcendent.
Not transcendental. Sometimes devotees may be in passion. Sometimes devotees may also be in ignorance.
The Bhagavatam third canto talks about bhakti, goodness, passion, ignorance also. So now when we hear statements like extremes, very strong or extreme statements in classes, we have to understand that there is a principle that among non-devotees they have the self-centered enjoying mentality which is like poison for bhakti. And that is what we have to be cautious against.
At the same time when we associate with non-devotees, for what purpose are we associating? And what is the nature of those non-devotees? What is our own nature? All this has to be considered. So if say, among those non-devotees there are people who have passion or ignorance, who think that illicit sex, gambling, intoxication, these are what are enjoyment. And then we associate with them unreservedly, unguardedly and we get filled with those desires.
That is when the poison of samsara sarpa, we should samsara is like a sarpa. And the poison that comes from it is the materialistic enjoying mentality. That is what will come to us.
And that is how we may get contaminated by them. But on many other occasions if we are just working on a functional level, you know we go to office, some office and we get some work done, we are going to our job. There we are not associating with non-devotees on sensual terms.
We are associating with them practically on functional terms. What we need to do? So there that sort of contact is unlikely to induce any enjoying mentality at that time. So that is not at all like kissing of a serpent.
And often it may well be that some non-devotees may be in goodness and we ourselves may be in passion. And we may find that just even in some non-devotees, for example if we have in our family some elderly grandfather or someone, they may not be a devotee. But sometimes just going in their presence we may feel respectful, we may feel calmed down, we may feel guided by them.
That association to call it as non-devotee association and condemn it that is not only wrong, not only incorrect, it may actually be offensive. So one of the philosophy has many definitions in secular circles also. Not secular, not non-devotional circles but in general outside of it.
One of the definition of philosophy is the art of making subtle distinctions. So making gross generalizations is completely non-philosophical. For example, if someone says Hinduism is a casteist religion.
And somebody says that, that is a completely unphilosophical way of looking. Because if we consider the Bhakti tradition, which is currently the most widespread tradition within what we call as Hinduism, that Bhakti tradition has been strongly anti-casteist. Many of the Bhaktas have been persecuted and Bhaktas have been universalist within Hinduism.
So basically when we don’t make philosophical distinctions, we don’t make subtle distinctions that means we are being unphilosophical. And actually within the Vedic philosophy there is this whole system of goodness, passion, ignorance. So in general we should associate with, we should get that kind of association that elevates us in our consciousness.
So it is not necessary that all devotee association will also elevate us. Sometimes some devotees may be of different natures and we may feel disturbed by their association. So it’s not a blanket statement that all devotee association is good and all non-devotee association is bad.
We have to individually decide what based on our own experience, our own understanding and the guidance of our seniors we have to understand what association inspires and elevates and then take that association. And with non-devotees when we are associating, yes we have to be cautious so that we don’t get the, we don’t get poisoned by the enjoying mentality from them. By the same time we are also meant to be sharing Krishna’s mercy with them, Krishna’s message with them and we are meant to represent Krishna’s message.
So if we have a holier than thou attitude or if we have a, we look down at them as others, we have a critical, judgmental, condemning attitude, then we will alienate them from Krishna and that will be a disservice. So basically Prabhupada when he was asked in a public program, how do we know your followers? Prabhupada did not say that they chant Hare Krishna constantly, they dance in the kirtans, that they worship the leader, he said they are perfect gentlemen, perfect ladies and gentlemen. What does that mean? That means, gentleman here means behavior which is gentle, which is appropriate, which is appreciable by people in general.
So that is the kind of conduct we should have when we are dealing with everyone, especially rather than thinking of those who are not devotees as non-devotees. When we use the word non-devotees, we have often a very judgmental connotation as if they are very degraded people. But rather than seeing people as non-devotees, we can see those who are not devotees as potential devotees.
And if we see them as potential devotees, then we can see that our role is to behave in a way by which their potential for devotion is at least in some small way activated. And by that they can come closer towards Krishna. So a devotee, if we can give Krishna to people, that is the best.
But if we cannot give Krishna to people, we should at least try to give them some ajna-tsukruti. That means we make them feel that Oh, I met a Krishna devotee, they are good people. So that appreciation will at least create the foundation for them to come closer towards Krishna.
So, yes, we have to be thinking of our spiritual safety. And if we find that some non-devotees are very aggressively materialistic, aggressively atheistic, aggressively sensual, then we may have to keep a safe distance from them. And in those situations, we can say that that association is like poison.
And we are not to condemn them. It is hate the sin, not the sinner. But in those special situations, specific situations, we may keep a very long distance from them to protect ourselves.
But even then we should not be judgmental about condemning them. But in general, in functional situations when we are dealing with people, we should be gentlemen and we should rather than judging people as non-devotees, see them as potential devotees and try to get them closer to Krishna in whatever way we can in that situation. Oh, perfect.