​Some devotees see social issues as irrelevant – isn’t bhakti meant to be socially relevant?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So engagement in social issues by devotees can actually help in stimulating discussion and making bhaktis more relevant to people. But sometimes some devotees just think that we are practicing bhakti there is no need to get involved in these issues. So what can we do about this? See bhakti is not monochrome.
It is not just one color. That means different devotees will have different understandings of bhakti. So we can envision bhakti more like a set of concentric circles of expanding radii.
So some devotees may say I am just chanting Hare Krishna I worship the deities, I chant Bhagavatam and I go to Krishna. That’s all I want. And yes I will share the same thing with others.
Let them come to Krishna. They will also come to Krishna. That is one kind of outreach.
That’s wonderful. But Prabhupada was actually the first Acharya in our tradition who has put social commentary in scriptural commentary. That means if you read Vishwanath Jagadguru’s commentary Vishwanath Jagadguru was living at a time when the Muslims had just devastated Vrindavan and he had just restored Vrindavan to some of its old glory.
But in his whole Bhagavatam commentary he doesn’t even once mention anything about Islamic invasion of India, about Islamic desecration of holy places. Why? Because you know for him scripture is meant for exposition in the scriptural terms. So Prabhupada was concerned about social issues.
Now of course Prabhupada offered a direct usually offered a direct spiritual take on social issues. He did not get too involved in discussion of social issues. So the principle is that Prabhupada didn’t want devotees to be involved in social issues.
Prabhupada wanted devotees to write spiritual perspectives and back to God magazine. Also current issues. So definitely he wanted that.
In fact he told Satsvarupa Maharaj to write a whole book about how worldly solutions won’t work without Krishna consciousness. So that means he wanted to study the worldly problems and explain that. So Prabhupada was definitely a socially engaged spiritualist.
Now the nature and the extent of the social engagement that can vary. Some devotees may feel there is no need for that. Some devotees may feel yes this is very important.
So if we have a particular inspiration then we need to associate with like-minded devotees. And then some devotees may be situated in a central circle where they focus only on Krishna bhakti. Others may want to be situated in a broader circle where they are practicing Krishna bhakti but they want to engage with the greater issues that connect society also.
Not every devotee can do that. Not every devotee needs to do that. Especially with respect to political issues that can, discussion on politics can easily become prajalpa.
It can just become mundane talk. And then the spiritual association just becomes an extension of the mundane association that we are having elsewhere. So we have to be careful about that.
So rather than talking about social issues in the general devotee community, we can talk about these issues among devotees who are especially interested. Not just interested, who are ready to do something about this. See most people when they talk about politics they talk and they don’t do anything.
The only thing people do about politics is cast their vote once in four or five years. Isn’t it? Not doing much, but if somebody is actually engaging, commenting and explaining. So I would say that, just like we have one thing which Prabhupada encourages scientific outreach.
So he said devotees should become trained in science and then present the spiritual message in scientific language. So similarly some devotees can do it in the field of politics. But just as, in the normal classes in our movement, we don’t have to talk about science.
Even if a devotee is doing scientific preaching, the normal class in the movement they will talk primarily about scripture. They will bring in some science. So the normal channels of the movement, they can focus on direct spiritual instruction.
But there can be alternative channels where devotees with specific interests can engage in specific issues. And actually, when you say Bhaktivinod Thakur says that, I long for, I foresee a moment in future when the Vaishnavas will be there, when the judges, high court judges will be there in Tilak. So now what does this mean? How is it likely to happen? One way, you could say that, devotees gain political power and they appoint devotee judges.
Which can happen if Krishna wants. But that may seem to be very far away. Another way that could happen more, more realistically is that, devotees actually become such good judges that the social government appoints them.
And they are devotees and still they are also committed judges. So now to come to that level of competence, devotees have to engage in these subjects. So these discussions can be in specialized circles for people who are interested in those.
And there is no need to think that devotees are not interested in this, they are not at all, they don’t care for the world. They are focusing Bhakti, practicing Bhakti, that is good. But we can find like-minded association and discuss the subjects in that association.
Thank you.