Is having negative opinions about others a subtle form of Vaishnava apradha?
Transcript
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and preconceived notions are form of Vaishnava aparadha.
I feel that this whole concept of Vaishnava aparadha is just too much. If it is not contextualized, it may cause us to live in perpetual paranoia. Am I committing aparadha? Am I committing aparadha? We want to be Krishna conscious, not fear conscious, not aparadha conscious.
Of course, we don’t want to avoid offenses but it is just a matter of normal human interaction that we will form some opinions about some people and sometimes those opinions may be right, sometimes they may not be right. If we start microanalyzing things, then we will just make life unlivable for ourselves as well as for others. We cannot stop our mind from forming opinions.
What we can do is we can ensure that we don’t act on those opinions. We may feel angry with some, we may feel this person is very lazy, this person is very judgmental. We feel like that, but we don’t have to act on that.
We don’t have to be derisive towards them, we don’t have to be disrespectful towards them. Nature has given us a buffer between our minds and the actions that we do. A buffer is a protector.
We can’t see each other’s thoughts and that is a great blessing. If we started seeing each other’s thoughts, then we couldn’t sustain even a single relationship. You think like this about me? You think like this about me? It will just be impossible.
From that perspective, we can’t avoid having opinions about people and those opinions may be wrong, they may be prejudiced. It’s just part of being human. At the same time, it is also said that thought is the ancestor to the deed.
Now, if there is a thought and there is contemplation continuously on that thought, then that thought will come out as action, that thought will come out as attitude and that will affect negatively. Having some preconceptions, if you’re entertaining them actively, if you’re cultivating them, if you’re nourishing them, if you’re feeding them, then they will come out as actions and those actions will be counterproductive. So, if we have some conceptions, some opinions about people, it’s not that we have to live in fear, oh, I’m committing an apartheid.
There is a saying that on seeing a Vaishnava, if you don’t feel happy, you’re committing an apartheid. But, if I’m working with someone and that person has not done the work, I can’t be happy. Ultimately, the purpose of avoiding apartheids is so that we can serve Krishna better.
We need to serve Krishna and we need to serve those who are serving Krishna. If the service to Krishna is being impeded by someone, then we will be naturally concerned. So, we could say that it can lead to Vaishnava apartheid.
So, we need to be cautious. So, it’s best if we have a negative conception about someone, maybe get it sorted out by talking with them, get it open there, or talk with someone else who has a better understanding of the other person, not in a gossipy sense, but in a clarifying sense. Now, we may see a particular person in a particular way, this person is so irresponsible.
But somebody else may love that person and, what do you see in this person? And then they see, oh, okay, this perspective, now I appreciate this perspective. So, that’s how we may broaden our horizons.