Is speaking to new people about Krishna the ninth offense to the holy name?

From Sajit P:
Lord Chaitanya enjoins us to speak Krishna’s message to everyone, yet the ninth offense forbids us from speaking the glories of the holy name to faithless people. How do we reconcile?

Answer Podcast:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
thank you Hare Krishna question we say that the ninth offense against the holy name is to instruct faithless people in the glories of the holy name at the same time Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said krishna upadesh that whoever you see tell about Krishna so now many people whom we see are faithless so should we tell them about Krishna or not answer yes definitely we should tell them about Krishna and we should know what the ninth offense essentially means to instruct faithless people about the glories of the holy name means that we should speak the glories in such a way that faithless people can be elevated in their faith and not degraded in their faith at one level nobody is faithless when we say somebody is faithless that simply means that that person does not have faith in Krishna but has faith in something else so it may be in demigods or it may be in semi gods semi god means save me god that I am god people who claim to be god other person may just have some faith in the power of money different people have different faith everybody has faith of some kind or the other so now we need to present Krishna’s message in such a way that that person’s faith becomes elevated the purpose of not speaking the principle behind ninth offense when each of these offenses we know need to go beyond the letter to the spirit also in order to not commit Niyamagraha that in order to ensure that we don’t stick to the rule and defeat the purpose of the rule we need to understand the principle underlying the rule so the principle is that we can’t in this world actually go beyond we the principle is that when we share Krishna’s glories we should do it in such a way that people are attracted to those glories and not alienated from Krishna so for example for people who don’t know anything about Krishna’s glory they start speaking very lofty things and that draws people away from Krishna that drives people away from Krishna so for example if we speak very intimate pastime of Radha and Krishna intimate connection of the holy names with the divine couple these are very advanced things that people cannot relate with and by speaking such things we actually end up raising more questions in their heart and thereby we we actually instead of helping them to come closer to Krishna create more blocks in their coming towards Krishna or we will push them away from him so that is what we should avoid just as if we are given a treasure now if say somebody gives a very precious jewel then will we give that to a child who may just throw it away we will not that does not mean that we want the child to stay in poverty but rather we may take something from that jewel or we may put that jewel and get some money and give the child something that the child values so that the child will develop a relationship with us and then later on may learn to trust our words when we tell him about the jewel and then accept the jewel so similarly when we say don’t instruct the faithless people about the glory of the holy name the purpose is not to keep the faithless forever faithless and never allowing them to come closer to Krishna rather it is to show our respect for the glory name for the glorious holy name that we don’t as Jesus said cast pearls before swine so we talk about aspects of the holy name which are understandable to people rather the holy name is just an important part a conclusive part but it is a part of the whole package of Vedic wisdom so for example Prabhupada did not talk a lot about the glory of the holy name he focused on the basic philosophy of how we are not the body and the soul how sense gratification doesn’t lead to lasting happiness how this world is a place of misery and how by directing our love towards God we will get lasting happiness and then he offered the holy name as a means to help people come closer to Krishna and even then he often let people experience the holy name more than to expound on the glories of the holy name that means he chanted Hare Krishna and gave people spiritual experiences rather than speak about esoteric glories of the holy name so that way when the sense of not committing that offense is that we don’t speak in such a way that the faithless continue in faithlessness or their faithlessness becomes aggravated but rather we speak according to their level so that they rise from feeling faithless to being faithful that is regard for them we have to have and also regard for the holy name in the sense that knowing that it is a jewel we don’t just indifferently give it to people who may not recognize its value as a great jewel and you may think of it as just something ordinary and neglected so the essence of this principle is not to block us against to put a bar on preaching of Krishna’s glories but to do outreach in such a way that it enables people to value what they are getting and it also shows our value for what we are giving Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s instruction focuses on the other principle of having the fervent desire even the mission to share the mission of compassion to share that’s why he says kaho krishna updesh there he is not telling speak about the confidential glories of the holy name if you look at Krishna Updesh initially it focuses on you are not the body or the soul and that’s what Srila Prabhupada would speak on primarily and later on it focuses on the glory of bhakti and the glory of Krishna and not even the Bhagavad Gita doesn’t focus too much on specifically on the glories of the holy name so in that sense both from the content of the two statements and from their intent so first is the intent of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s statement is the intent of compassion and the ninth and the offense is actually an intent of intent of appreciation you have to appreciate people for where they are and help them rise higher and you have to appreciate the holy name to realize how valuable a gift it is so if from the content and the intent point of view actually there is no contradiction between them. Thank you.