Should we appreciate the good qualities in nondevotees?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So if we can appreciate non devotees by seeing their good qualities and desiring that they if they became devotees it would be so wonderful. So is that kind of appreciation positive? See definitely any kind of good qualities we can appreciate them.
It’s not that we have to live blind. Somebody is a good speaker, they are a good speaker. Somebody is a good writer, they are good writers.
We can’t deny that. But the point, there is a difference between appreciating something and getting attracted to something. When I say getting attracted I primarily talk about in terms of following them.
So that we don’t want to do. But in general if somebody who already has some special qualities if they become devotees of Krishna, then all those who are attracted to their qualities will also become attracted towards, at least connected with Krishna, appreciative of Krishna. So that was I would say one of the big reasons why the devotees who went to London first tried to get to George Harrison and The Beatles.
Because they thought through them we will be able to get to so many people. So obviously they appreciated The Beatles and they appreciated that they had some extraordinary musical abilities. So certainly we don’t have to deny that people have good qualities.
We have to see that whether appreciation of their good qualities what is it doing to me? Is it deepening my appreciation of Krishna? Is it helping me to connect them with Krishna? Or is it helping me learn something which I can use in Krishna’s service? So in writing it is said if you steal from one author it is plagiarism. If you steal from a hundred authors it is creativity. So no author is really truly entirely original.
You all take from others. So we can look at how if somebody is some speaker of some other tradition who is not exactly a devotee if they are speaking or writing in a creative way we can take those terms from that. And then we can use it in Krishna’s service.
So appreciating in a way that helps us come closer to Krishna or helps us increase our Krishna Consciousness helps us also maybe create a path for them to come to Krishna Consciousness. That is fine. So there is that almost humorous kind of words that Prabodhanam Saraswati says that Prabodhanam Saraswati says that Oh this is how you should approach a person who is very materially famous or influential or powerful.
You are so great, you are so glorious, you are so powerful and I fall at your feet. And now with straw in my teeth I beg you, please give up everything else and surrender to Lord Chaitanya. So what that means is that you may not literally do that but the principle there is we appreciate people for the good in them but then we don’t forget our mission that we have to get them to Krishna’s lotus feet.
So if appreciating them helps them to get them to the lotus feet