When do questions move from being inquisitive to offensive? What kind of questions can be asked?

Transcript

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Hare Krishna.
When do our questions move from being inquisitive to being offensive? What kind of questions are considered offensive when we ourselves ask them to our seniors or when others ask them to us? Answer. When it comes to questions, primarily we shouldn’t be too much caught up in the idea of the offensiveness of the questions. We should be focusing on the attitude of the person.
If we have an attitude where we really want to understand a thing properly, then even if our question is connected with a core belief, still we can ask that question. For example, somebody may have doubts about say whether Srila Prabhupada was a pure devotee or whether Krishna, Zarasthi Laila is not moral or whatever. There can be different kinds of questions that different people have.
And some people may find the fact that somebody is doubting something like this as offensive. But it is not necessarily so. A person may well be inquisitive.
And often skeptical people, they are quite irritated when they find somebody labeling their questions as offensive. Because the cynics have come up with the theory that actually the whole idea of offenses was invented by the brahmanas to insulate themselves from criticism. Now that is not true.
The ideal brahmanas in the Vedic culture were very humble. And they were ready to correct themselves whenever it was required. They were truly saintly people who were tolerant, who were forgiving, who were merciful.
We see Vashishtha when Vishwamitra took away his cow. Vashishtha did not himself protest. And there are so many examples like that.
But the point is that if we just go too much into the zone of thinking that something is offensive, people may think that we don’t have a rational defense or a rational explanation for our beliefs. And we are just using offense as a cover-up for concealing our lack of intellectually rational explanations. Now, there are some religions which even go to the extent of persecuting and even destroying those who criticize them.
In general, the Vedic tradition has always been accommodating of various views. And there has been fear. This doesn’t mean that any and every view is considered to be right.
There are the six systems of philosophy. And if we look at the Indian history, it has been a history of intense polemics. Now, each school of thought has been trying to propagate its own ideas.
But it was all done with respect, with logic and in a rational way. So scripture authority was quoted. But overall, the point was not that a Nyaya philosopher is criticizing a Vedanta philosopher.
Nyaya philosopher will not start the discussion by saying that you are Vedantic teacher, you are being offensive to us. Nor will Baldev Vidyabhushan or Ramanujacharya, especially when they are talking seriously, when they are writing commentaries on Vedanta Sutra, if they are refuting the Advaitins, they don’t say that this idea is offensive and therefore we won’t deal with it. No, the focus is on showing how it is incorrect.
Now, it’s also definitely true that some people may have an inherently offensive attitude where they are asking just to create a fight and to somehow prove the rightness of their own ideas and the wrongness of the spiritual beliefs of devotees. Now, when a person has that kind of obstinate recalcitrant attitude, then that can be offensive and it’s best for such a person, best to not pursue the relationship with such a person and keep away. So when do questions become offensive? The offensiveness of the question is not so much determined by the content as by the intent.
The content may even question cherished belief and it may still be a genuine inquisitiveness but if it is done with the attitude of just trying to find faults and trying to create a conflict, then that is offensive. So whenever we are trying to answer questions or whenever we are asking questions, what we should focus on is that are we open-minded enough to accept the explanations or are we just trying to prove that we are right and this other person is wrong. So if we are doing that, then our attitude is not inquisitive.
It may go towards offensive when we are asking questions and when others are doing that, if you find that we give a few answers and still the person doesn’t accept, then we can just pray for that person from a distance and let that person go their way. Sometimes some people know too much, know in double codes to be helped. Some people know too much to be helped.
Just like if a patient thinks that I am cleverer than the doctor and the patient just refutes all the diagnosis of the doctor, the doctor can’t help the patient much. Sometimes some people are so filled with their own conceptions that they can’t really learn anything new. So such people, they may criticize and because their attitude is not one of wanting to learn but the attitude is one of wanting to just prove their own rightness and the wrongness of the scriptural teaching, at that time we can consider that offensive and leave it.
So primarily we should focus the offensiveness if you want to decide. It’s not so much on the content but on the intent and we may also misunderstand the intent because initially some people may speak in such a way that they may seem offensive although their intention may not be offensive. So we can always give them the benefit of doubt, be a little patient and let them get their steam off a little bit and then after that if they still continue to have that attitude of hostility, then we can decide that this discussion is not going to be productive and then end it over there.
And serve those people not by trying to answer their question but by praying for them from a distance. Thank you. Hare Krishna.