Should we correct devotees and become a bad guy in their eyes or just turn a blind eye to their wrongdoings?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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Do we want to be, should we try to be liked by all devotees and neglect the wrong that they are doing or should we become like the bad person in their eyes by correcting them, disciplining them? Three things.
First is that in general devotees are volunteers. So even if somebody is a full-time devotee in the temple, they can also leave at any time. So devotees are volunteers.
And that’s why we have limited capacity to control them. A person can be fired. If they don’t work properly in a company, they can just be fired.
This one devotee told me that managing things is very easy. Managing trivial is much more difficult. Managing devotees is most difficult.
So first of all that brings point that everybody here is a volunteer. And that’s why we just have to encourage the spirit of service within them. We can’t impose standards or demand things from them.
They might just quit. So that’s one point where we the voluntary nature of their service. The other is that we are a part of a movement where certain standards are expected.
So we just can’t in the name of in the name of accommodating people just neglect the standards. So if some people are doing something wrong, it has to be pointed out. So now in between these two, maintaining standards and maintaining people.
So the balance would be in my understanding we have to choose our battles. Choose our battles means that say if if somebody is going to give a class then it’s important that you say memorize shlokas and speak shlokas properly. It’s important that you answer questions politely and logically.
It’s important that you prepare the content. There are so many things which a preacher is expected to do. Now somebody may not be able to do all these things.
But then we may decide somebody is mispronouncing some words in Sanskrit shlokas. That’s a minor thing. Somebody speaks a wrong philosophy itself.
Speaks a that God is impersonal. Or speaks some impersonal teachers and that’s a serious problem. So we have to choose the battles which is causing a serious problem and which is causing a not so serious problem.
And then that is serious, we take a stand on it. That is not so serious, we don’t have to take a stand. I think a lot of clarification happens if we focus on the purpose rather than thinking that should I maintain standards or should I compromise on standards.
In general it’s called the word compromising, it’s a very negative word. Or should I adjust standards. Or should I try to please devotees or should I train devotees.
So all these questions, if we can focus on the bigger picture, what is our purpose. So then that helps us clarify things. Because in a situation, what is my purpose means? That generally our sense of purpose is related with our sense of identity.
So who am I? What is my role? So if I am in a particular management position, how much power do I have? How much authority do I have? How much alternative arrangements I can make if something is not done according to a particular way? So based on that big picture, we can decide. I think our goal is neither to be popular among devotees nor to be unpopular among devotees. Our goal is to engage devotees.
And of course if devotees have a cordial relationship, services go on. And we do want to maintain cordial relationships. And also I think rather than making devotees as one general category, even among devotees there are different kinds of devotees.
Some, sometimes if you tell them that this is not meant to be done like this, do like this. Very grateful, I didn’t know. So they are eager to learn, they are very trainable.
Some people, they are just not, small thing, why are you doing this? This actually hit back at us when we try to correct them. So then every leader, we don’t have to be big leaders, but in our particular area where we are leaders, we all have to find people with whom we can work best. Whom we can train.
And not in a gross sense of dismissing somebody, but over a period of time naturally we will gravitate towards people who work with us. And those are the people whom we can train and whom we can gradually inspire towards higher standards. And over a period of time, others will find some other engagements.
So sometimes it may happen smoothly, sometimes some friction may also happen. I think more important than the pleasing or displacing devotees or being considered good or bad, more important is making sure that we do the service. And here also it will vary based on individual’s nature.
Some people, for them to maintain social harmony is much more important for their own peace of mind. And for some people, maintaining standards is much more important for their peace of mind. So accordingly each leader will have a little bit of their own mood.
So we also have to understand that serving Krishna is our need. We can say maintaining standards is Prabhupada’s expectation. Pleasing devotees is what Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s devotees are so valuable.
There is Shastra which we can quote for both, for maintaining standards and for maintaining devotees. But we have to see what is our need. What is it that nourishes us? So say some some services very high standards are required and that’s what not just we want but that’s what the community expects and that’s what the leaders also emphasize.
Then we may have to shortlist and have very trainable devotees in that. Some things, like when we say book distribution, how do we know what people are saying when they are meeting people and distributing books. We may use some training but people will do what they want to do.
We can’t really have much control over that. Okay, that’s fine. So generally see the big picture and then see what is our role, what is our position and what is our need