Isn’t it better to read Prabhupada books instead of wasting time on social media?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
And practicing bhakti. It’s not necessarily a matter of this or that.
We can even read Prabhupada’s books online. We can get interesting quotations of Prabhupada’s books online. And that can also be used to share spiritual message.
But the important thing is, more than the medium, the purpose is important. Whether we are reading hard copy books, whether we are reading online, digital copy of books, whether we are reading digitally shared messages, the purpose is important. So it will depend on different people with their own inclinations, with their own positions, what they are in.
And how much of an interface with social media is actually required. Or how much is feasible for them. So some devotees who maybe, we all have our innate interests.
And we cannot have a, at a material level, we can never have a one size fit all formula for everyone. Just like say different people have different sizes for the clothes that they wear. Different people have different sizes for the shoes that they wear.
So like that, different people have different minds. And some people may well get along with, I don’t want to get involved in this social media business at all. I’ll just have my own service, my own sadhana.
And my own local friend circle is there. That’s good enough for me. I don’t need anything more.
So if somebody can be satisfied like that, and somebody can perceive we are in bhakti like that, that’s wonderful. And there are others who may feel, no, there’s so much, there’s so many wonderful devotees, there’s devotees here, there, I can connect with them and we can share Krishna Katha with them. So we can have more of, I can also connect with people, maybe share Krishna consciousness with them.
So if somebody feels inspired to do that, then, and they are able to do it responsibly, not just spend a lot of time in chit-chatting and gossiping, then that is also very valuable. So it is to some extent, social media is anyway going to mold people’s opinions. And if we are not there in molding people’s opinions, then other people are going to be there and they’re going to mold people’s opinions.
So the influence is anyway there. And we may say, oh, I’m just a small person. And how much can I, how much can I influence as a tiny person? That may be true, but we all have our small or large circles of influence.
And the fact is that this is, in a sense, the language through which people are communicating today. So just saying that we have so many other things to do and we don’t want to get involved in these things, that is fine at one level, but we will also miss out on a lot of opportunity to share and others are going to take that opportunity. So in that sense, if some devotees feel inspired to do it, then we don’t have to demonize them, they are wasting so much time.
We have to ourselves see what is uncool for our bhakti and others have to see what is uncool for their bhakti. And the basic principle in making decisions like this is accept that it is favorable and avoid that it is unfavorable. So if somebody feels inspired, they read Shloka Prabhupada’s books.
I know some devotees, they form a small group and then they read Shastra, they hear classes and they share what they’ve heard on their own social media groups. And the fact that they’re going to share something on maybe a daily basis or a weekly basis, that makes them more eager to read carefully. Otherwise, we just read and by the time we have finished reading one page and go to the next page, we have forgotten what I read on the previous page.
But if we have an opportunity to share, then not only an opportunity to share, we have a forum where we can share, then we start looking, okay, what is the interesting point over here? What can I share? So in a sense, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says, Now, whoever you meet, you share Krishna’s message. We could apply that to the digital age and say that, you know, whoever we are in contact with on social media, you know, we should share Krishna’s message with them also. And these are the kind of people whom we are meeting.
So if that is the case, then it is vital for us to choose properly. Thank you.