Should we see non-philosophical devotees as not needing intellectual conviction or as weak because of intellectual malnourishment?

Anwser Podcast

Transcript

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so some people either because they have limited intelligence or for some other reason they are just not very philosophical they have some service attitude they have some devotion so how should we see such people is it that because their heart has devotion so whether they have philosophical interest or not it doesn’t matter or is it that because they don’t have philosophical interest their heart they will get diverted in future in general the basic principle when we are practicing bhakti is that whatever is favorable we accept what is unfavorable so with respect to ourselves first of all we need to decide if for me I find we may initially find philosophical boring also but actually if we get into the philosophy we find it increases my conviction it increases my determination it helps me to focus sometimes if we are doing japa but before japa before doing our chanting before doing our meditation just hear a little bit about the glories of the holy name immediately this is the same krishna manifesting now let me focus on krishna so we can see our practice becomes more determined by understanding therefore first for our sake we should try to understand now as far as others are concerned the first thing is that we have to get them to connect with krishna if krishna is here they are here somehow or the other they have to get connected and then that connection can be expanded so if they have some love and devotion then engage them accordingly maybe they can do some service for the deities maybe they can participate in few turns maybe they can go for renown or whatever get them engaged in some service now as the connection with krishna becomes established the nature of krishna connection is that if we keep serving krishna that krishna connection will expand initially i may come to the temple only to only to take darshan if i keep doing that gradually i am thinking who are these people every time i come to the whenever i sometimes i come to darshan i see there is class going on what is there in this class so the nature of the krishna connection is once the connection is established it will expand so we focus on wherever people are at engage them along with that we give them philosophy as per their interest so it’s not for us to judge whether a person’s devotion is so great that they don’t need it people are just sentimental we are sadhakas they are sadhakas we don’t have to judge them at the same time if we are introducing them krishna bhaktis are responsible to guide them and therefore we can encourage them to the best of our capacity we can present krishna consciousness in an interesting way we give them classes by the devotees whose way of thinking which we are presenting they will connect with but sometimes they will just not be interested so we just engage them the way that is practical for them and we wait because ultimately their practice of bhakti is not just between us and them their practice of bhakti is between them and krishna and if we provide them whatever facility we can then they will come towards krishna through their own gradual spiritual evolution so one more practical thing we can see is that we can look at their overall life if that person is very shrewd and intelligent and analytical in the rest of their life and they show no philosophy or intuition then that means something is missing this person is just not is just not interested right now but in general also this person is not very very intellectual simple hearted kind of person in all aspects of their life that means this may not be much of a need for them so we have to we can’t project what is our need on others like once I was giving a class I told that when we go into the deities we can recite some verses and reciting those verses we will be able to connect with krishna the person if you are meditating on krishna is there and thoughts about krishna are there so I said that personally for me unless I recite a verse I just don’t connect with the deities so that kindles whatever little devotion I have after a couple of days a devotee came to me and said I try to memorize verses and speak in front of the deities just connecting that verse causes me so much tension that whatever bhakti I feel it goes away so it’s good to memorize verses but for somebody else that may not be the primary way to connect with krishna so what applies there is an english saying that the shoe that fits one leg bites another leg so like that we can’t we can’t we can’t stereotype that this is what everyone needs everybody needs to have some basic intellectual understanding but that basic level what a basic is may vary based on the person’s own nature and intellectual capacity does that answer your question any other questions yes thank you