Should we force our teenage children to take to bhakti or leave it to Krishna’s will?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
so the question is that if we have teenage children then how much force can we apply for them to try to get them towards Krishna or should we just wait for Krishna’s will I think both are extremes that is we can’t just waiting for Krishna’s will that we are not doing our part we also can do certain things and applying force means we are actually denying them their individuality their free will that is also not we should not apply force in general whenever we want to help connect others with Krishna we can do three things and literally we can’t do anything other than this we can provide knowledge we can set an example and we can provide facilities we can give knowledge for example now as I said even the basic philosophy of Krishna Consciousness can make sense to an individual so whatever knowledge we can provide give them books give them some talks to hear or invite them to some class or whatever provide them knowledge second is inspiration actually we can do a lot of preaching very effectively by classes to people who don’t know us but well people who know us what will actually affect them is change in our own behaviour if our relatives if our acquaintances see that by the practice of bhakti my relative, my mother, my father my son, my daughter they have become a better person then they will want to know how has this changed you so now if they see we have become better we have become more loving, more caring, more sensitive then they will see that as a positive change unfortunately although on one side the philosophy of bhakti the practice of bhakti is meant to make us more sensitive because we understand everybody has conditions I have a mind which I am struggling with others have a mind and senses which they are struggling so we should become actually more sympathetic and sensitive towards others but sometimes because we learn through the philosophy that this is right and this is wrong we sometimes become more judgemental with others say that this is wrong and you should give it up yes it may be wrong but they have not yet accepted the worldview that we have accepted and if we look at ourselves then often we do take some amount of time to accept things we can’t expect others to accept those things easily I am in the opposite situation as compared to you I took up Krishna Consciousness I wanted my parents to take Krishna Consciousness so then I asked Jaya Dvait Maharaj how do I reach to my parents so Maharaj said by letting anyone except you preach to them he said your parents have seen you as babies your parents have seen you they have helped you to grow up, to walk, to talk but they are not in the position to receive spiritual knowledge from you but they can receive from others so the point is that if we become then judgemental then often our relatives start feeling that we have become more unloving because of our love this is right, this is wrong you are no longer loving it is important that we offer affection to them and we care for them, we stay available for them irrespective of whether they practice bhakti or not certainly we would like them to practice bhakti and we would like them to come closer to Krishna and we can express our desire but our love should not be conditional to that so if they start feeling that we have become more judgemental and unloving because of bhakti then our example will keep them away from Krishna rather than bringing them closer to Krishna so second example where we become more loving, sensitive, understanding and thirdly is provide facilities facilities means that it can vary depending on person to person that means if there is now if they are teenagers if there are other teenagers who are in this group who are also devotees or children of devotees or teenagers who have become devotees then if they can meet like a circle from the same age group if there is a youth group or youth group can be formed then that is a facility where they can practice bhakti or they may need the presentation of Krishna conscious culture and philosophy in a way suited for them so we may not be able to reach to them but some other teenagers or some other preachers who are trained for preaching to teenagers they are able to reach to them so this is ultimately we cannot force we cannot and should not force anyone but we can share knowledge, set an example and provide facilities and then we pray to Krishna to attract them from within their heart so that they come to Him