Should devotees do kirtan in drought-afflicted places to produce rains and thereby attract people to devotional service?

Transcript

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Question. I heard that in one place, devotees went around doing Harinam Sankirtan when there were droughts. And then a lot of rains came after that.
And then that led to a lot of people coming for the programs and people becoming serious devotees also after that. So, why don’t devotees do this similarly wherever there are droughts, go and do Kirtans and then get rains over there. Not only will we be doing material welfare by that, but we will also be helping people to come to devotional service.
Answer. The process of devotional service is not a process of doing miracles and then instilling faith in people through those miracles. Now, from the material point of view, the idea that Kirtans will produce rains is like a miracle for most people.
And the faith that comes by seeing miracles is often resting on the capacity to show miracles. And then that faith is not necessarily faith in the process of devotional service. It is more faith in the capacity to produce miracles.
So, in the fifth canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam, it is described in Rishabhdev’s section that Rishabhdev had the mystical powers by which he could do miracles, but he did not use them. And there it is said in the Bhagavatam that a devotee is cautious not to use mystical powers because the mind is so dangerous that even if currently it is in control, like a wild animal which has been brought under captivity, it can at any moment run away or it can at any moment attack the person who is controlling it also. So, like that the mind can go away in a random direction.
It can come and attack us also. So, actually indulgence in the material energy, especially through ways like this, through ways that bring a lot of attention to a person at a material level in a sense of miracles can trigger the mind with all kinds of fancies. So, just as devotees don’t use mystic powers, similarly, devotees don’t use the holy name to exhibit some miracles.
The principle that Kirtans will lead to rains is a profound philosophical principle. And the principle is harmonization with God. When we are harmonized, when we are living a life of harmony with the Supreme Lord and His universal government, then naturally the government will provide us our necessities.
But if we are not doing that, then just doing Kirtans, will it lead to rains? It may or it may not. There are many factors involved in it. It is just like, you know, it is not just if in a particular city some citizens start paying the taxes, others don’t.
So, will the water supply come or not? That will depend. You know, if those citizens, a better way, a more sustainable way to ensure that water supply comes is, those citizens encourage other citizens also to become law abiding. So, our primary thrust is on sharing Krishna Consciousness.
And when we start sharing Krishna Conscious philosophy, by that people will become law abiding. They will learn to live in harmony with the principles of Krishna Consciousness and when they do that, automatically they will perform Yajna and rains will come. The purpose of doing Yajna is not to subvert the general laws of nature.
It is to promote people to recognize the laws of nature and follow them on the basis of spiritual wisdom. So, now we don’t want to be hard-hearted and sensitive, but if there are droughts in some area, we have to also understand that that is also a karmic reaction. So, if we just focus only on acting on the humanitarian level, whether it is through going and giving food and water supply, water relief or whether it is by doing Kirtans to get water relief.
Is there education happening over there? Education is not happening. People are attracted by miracles and they will keep staying attracted by miracles. Even in the Bible it is said that faith that comes by developing miracles is not as deep-rooted as faith that comes without miracles, without seeing miracles.
So, when the faith is based on education and reformation, then one understands the truths of life and not the body and the soul and God is in charge of the world and then one transforms one’s life and sees the resulting in the change in oneself. When one tries to live in harmony with spiritual principles and one sees the change, then the faith that comes is far deeper. The faith that comes through education and reformation, that is the faith that will lead to sustainable spiritual advancement.
So, that’s why the devotees primarily focus not on humanitarian relief, be it through material social welfare or through some sort of mystical social welfare by doing Kirtan. Devotees primarily focus on the sharing of Krishna conscious wisdom by which the harmonization of people’s lives with the principles of spirituality will take place and then naturally nature will provide our necessities in adequate quantities. So, we shouldn’t use Kirtan as a means to circumventing or subverting the process of action and reaction that governs nature.
That is not what we should be teaching people. So, occasionally sometimes some devotees may do this but this shouldn’t be our normal preaching strategy. Shrila Prabhupada has once or twice, once there was a drought in Hyderabad and actually there were some devotees with Kirtan and the drought went away.
So, Prabhupada has referred to it. But if you look at the frequency of that in his teachings, it is extremely low. So, this should not be made into central thrust of our preaching.
If someone has done that occasionally somewhere, those people can do, use that. Different devotees may use different methods for outreach. But we have to understand that this is not the standard way the Acharyas have shared and that’s why we should not share Krishna Consciousness that way.
We primarily focus on education and reformation. And then by the resulting harmonization, there will be provision of our necessities like food and water