When a leader of a devotee community acts unethically should we try to correct the situation or should we leave it in Krishna’s hands?

From Kamlesh Khurana P

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you. Question From Kamlesh Khurana to When a leader preacher under some family compulsions acts jealous and takes unethical steps, how can he brought to books and stop from doing that? Or shall we wait for Krishna to take care of his actions and let the congregation suffer? Answer These are difficult personal issues which will have to be decided based on case to case.
The essential principle for every devotee first and foremost is to protect one’s own Krishna consciousness. And then secondly, one can try to also help improve the situation of the institution or the community where one is practicing Krishna consciousness. So Chaitanya Mahaprabhu indicates the sequence in the Bharat Bhumite Hoil Manashu Janmasarthak Kari Karaparopkar So he says first Janmasarthak Kari and then Karaparopkar.
So Karaparopkar doesn’t necessarily mean only preaching to new people. Karaparopkar can also refer to taking care of the institutional issues that are there or the issues that are there within the devotee community. If we are not connected with Krishna, then we really cannot help others much, even if we want to.
The person doesn’t know how to swim. If that person tries to drown a swimming, to save a drowning person, that person can’t do much. That person may even drown in the effort of rescue in someone else.
So same way when we see something inappropriate happening in the devotee community, there can be three situations. One is that one is the victim of that inappropriate thing. Second is one is an observer and third is one is in a position of authority.
So if one is the victim of that, then one certainly has a right to seek redressal and that may involve reporting to some senior devotees and then making sure that the grievance is addressed. And if one finds that the senior devotees do not do anything about it, then one may have to keep a distance from that particular person or even that particular section of the community so that one can pursue one’s Krishna consciousness without undue agitation of the mind. So we don’t have to have necessarily a revengeful attitude towards somebody who has hurt us, even if that person happens to be a leader in the devotee community.
But what we should see is that this person may do something similar to others also and that’s why I should report this. And if nothing happens, then we should know that I have done my part and I have come to Krishna consciousness not to take revenge against anyone who has hurt me. I have come to Krishna consciousness to practice my own Krishna consciousness.
So I have done my part here in reporting something that was wrong. If the leaders are not ready to do anything about it, it’s not that my life mission is to correct some particular person. My life mission is to develop my relationship with Krishna.
So let me keep a distance from that particular situation and find some other conducive environment where I can practice my devotional service peacefully. Of course, we may say that there’s no peaceful situation, but definitely there are situations which are extremely disturbing and other situations are conducive. So we all need a conducive situation with the practice of Krishna consciousness.
So it’s not wrong to keep distance from some devotees because devotees are of different natures. And the important point is we understand it’s like a hospital. I have an infection.
Some other people have some different other infections. So I don’t want to get their infection. And that’s why I’ll keep a distance.
And I know that the process of Krishna consciousness is powerful. It will purify me. And I will take association in some other forum, some other devotee community and continue practicing my Krishna consciousness.
So for the victim, either seek grievances or seek other devotee forum and continue on. If one is an observer, then depending on one’s connection with either the leader or connection with the victim, one can do as much as possible to help redress the situation. One can try to give proper support, solace and help in spirit and in kind to the victim.
And one can try to get the leader to see the error of the ways so that the leader can best to be apologized and correct. And this course of action is all the more important in the third case. If we are in a position of authority where we can redress the grievance.
So if we are in a position of authority, then that means we are accepting the privileges of the position of authority. And that along with that comes responsibility to make sure that things don’t go wrong. So then one may have to take it as a very serious responsibility for oneself to make sure that the incidents of that kind don’t get repeated.
And that the person who has been victimized in that way, the person gets redressed. The grievance gets redressed, the person gets, the spirit might have been shaken or shattered. The spirit is healed and strengthened.
So we should, if we are also a leader in the community in some way, then it’s our responsibility to make sure that what has gone wrong is corrected. So depending on who is involved, one will have to take an appropriate, what is one’s position in the whole issue. One will have to take appropriate response.
So as far as letting Krishna deal with the congregation, with the devotees and letting the congregation suffer, we certainly understand that everything is not in our hands, but that doesn’t mean nothing is in our hands. And it also depends on how much we have decided to take in our hands. If we have taken up a position of responsibility and authority, then we are acting on Krishna’s behalf.
And it is our responsibility to Krishna to do our part in trying to correct the situation, in trying to settle the grievances of the person who has been victimized and to discipline and correct the person who has done something wrong. So the principle of bhakti doesn’t mean that we just passively let everything stay in Krishna’s hands. But it also means that when things are not in our hands, then we understand, okay, ultimately it’s for Krishna to take care.
And we leave things at, we just focus on practicing our Krishna consciousness, not get too excessively involved in these things. So this is not a philosophy of passivity that let Krishna take care of everything. It is a philosophy that recognizes the point that we have a role and we have powers given for that role.
If we have that role and we have powers, we are acting on Krishna’s behalf. And to let, at that point, to say that let Krishna decide, that is a responsibility. But when we have done what we could, and after that nothing happens and we see nothing can be done from our side now, in the normal course of duty, then we understand that, okay, this is in Krishna’s hand, that is not a responsibility, that is maturity.
Recognizing that our life has a particular focus and this particular thing may not fall in our focus. So therefore, with maturity, we put that aside and make sure that we move forward in our life without the scars and the shadows of that unfortunate event troubling us too much. Thank you.