Is speaking about krishna-bhakti to relatives who may be faithless an offense to the holy name?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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so is speaking to our relatives who may not be devotees about bhakti, is it an offense to the holy name in terms of in terms of instructing the faithless people because these relatives may be impersonalists, demigod worshippers or whatever no, the whole principle of sharing Krishna consciousness and preaching means that there will be people who will not have faith and by our speaking we are trying to give them faith so that way we could say that all preaching could be might fall under this offense if we take the offense in a very literal sense the essential point is that of this offense is that we not speak very intimate pastimes or very exalted glories of the Lord to people who do not have the adhikar to understand them so it’s more a matter of appropriate preaching rather than of no preaching at all that means to a new person who may be talking about Krishna to stress say that Krishna has 16,108 wives and therefore he is God this may not be a reasoning which can very easily understandable for them or to tell them that Govardhan was so many males at that time and Krishna was lifted with a single finger some people who have faith they may be able to their faith may increase but those who have been educated in the modern context they are illogical, skeptical so basically to instruct a faithless person the glories of the holy name essentially means to not speak intimate glories of the Lord like intimate Radha Krishna pastimes or pastimes which are very difficult to understand which are easy to misunderstand and to speak in a way that can help people rise in their faith so if we speak things which are unbelievable for them which are unacceptable for them then we may well be committing this offense because basically by our speaking we are making the we are going to only increase their doubts, increase their reservations increase their faithlessness so let’s consider from the perspective what is the reason for this particular thing being considered an offense to instruct a faithless person about the glories of the holy name so what is the reason just like if we have the head of state of a country for the general citizens they have to have a respectful attitude towards the head of the state so if say the media depicts the head of state in a state of undress or a state that is inappropriate then the proper respectful disposition that is to be there for the people towards the head of state that will no longer be there so one point is that there should be the proper respectful attitude towards Krishna so by speaking about Krishna in a way that people may not appreciate his position but people may question him for his actions that way we are actually not offering proper respect to Krishna the second aspect is that people may themselves so one is the disrespect to Krishna can happen in the minds of people and second as a consequence of that related with that itself is that people may become alienated from Krishna they may start thinking that oh this doesn’t make sense this is illogical, this is sentimental this is that so that way they may go away from Krishna so essentially to speak in a way that either creates doubt or disrespect for Krishna in people’s mind thereby increases their faithlessness that is the offense but if you are speaking in a way that helps them to rise one step forward from where they are through logical appealing kind of presentation then that is not at all an offense that is very much desirable and essential for elevating people’s consciousness so when we are with our relatives if they are from particular backgrounds then we can focus primarily on finding out which aspect of Krishna Bhakti will be appealing to them so and try to get them that way connected with Krishna Bhakti so if somebody is a demigod worshipper then we needn’t necessarily talk about how demigod worship is wrong and Krishna Bhakti is of a lower level and Krishna Bhakti is a higher level we may talk generally about scriptures and how whatever we do should be based on scriptures and we can encourage them to read scriptures for themselves or basically we can find out within their circle of interest and faith what is the area of intersection with the circle of with the circle of interest and faith that is Krishna Bhakti and through that intersection help them move closer towards Krishna so we can appreciate their piety we can appreciate their whatever level of bhakti they have to whichever form and encourage them to take steps forward and if you are doing that then far from being offensive we are actually helping them in a very important way in coming closer to Krishna