​When offering obeisances physically is not practical because there are too many senior devotees, is that offensive?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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So there are many senior devotees and if you are not able to offer obeisances physically to all of them is it a matter of pride? No Krishna is not an unreasonable God. He never demands something which is not possible for us to do so the mood of offering obeisances is to offer our respect. So we do it physically as much as is possible for us but if there are some physical limitations, it is not possible.
Then we offer in the mind we fold our hands and we offer obeisances with folded hands. That is perfectly fine. In the Bhagavatam it says that there are principles of bhakti but they have to be applied according to time, place and circumstance So when Bhishma Devi is lying on his arrow bed at that time he is not in the condition to offer obeisances to the sages who come.
So he just moves his eyes and actually eyebrows and he offers his regard and respect to them and that is considered he is a dharmagya he is a knower of religious principles and accordingly what he does is right so certainly our spiritual master we should offer obeisances as much as possible as physically and if we are personally meeting some senior devotees some sannyasis, if it is physically possible we can offer obeisances to them when we are meeting them but if there is a general community of devotees and there are many seniors it is not practical to offer obeisances to everyone so I was in Alachua last year Alachua is in America which is a community of Prabhupada disciples more like a retired community where devotees stay together so there practically everybody is a Prabhupada disciple how can one possibly offer obeisances to everyone over there we just hold hands over there so we don’t have to think of this as offensive and if there is a particular devotee to whom we are regularly offering obeisances earlier and now we stop offering obeisances then we can clarify because of my health or because of physical limitation or whatever I am not offering obeisances so we should not we should not do it in a way that seems disrespectful to someone so it is not that everybody else is offering obeisances and we are not at all not even looking at that person we can also fold our hands and offer obeisances so devotees are understanding about this we don’t have to worry too much about that thank you very much