When we see that devotees aren’t being cared for, how can we see it positively and what can we do about it?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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My question regarding devotee cares.
Sometimes we hear that even senior devotees who have served a lot in the past, but are not currently serving, are no longer cared for, nobody meets them or ask anything to them about them. So despite having a devotee care department, is devotee care actually happening? And if we want to, sometimes some devotees enthusiastically take up devotee care also, but they have so many other services that they are unable to do much in that area. And if I wish to do a service like devotee care, how can I go about doing it, irrespective of what the level of particular devotee may be at? These are complicated questions and a lot of contextuality in the answers to these questions.
That means each community will have its own mood, its own dynamism, its own emphasis. And that’s why what happens in one community can’t be very easily generalized to others. So let’s focus on some broad principles that historically in our movement, in our Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition itself, change has happened always beginning from the fringes.
Fringes means that Bhaktivinod Thakur was not born in a Gaudiya family. He was in the fringes of the Gaudiya community at his times. But he brought about a rejuvenation, regeneration of the community based on his presentation of Gaudiya Vaishnavism in a contemporary way to his followers, to the people at that time.
Similarly, Bhaktivinod Thakur, Srila Prabhupada himself was not in the part of the management or leadership of Gaudiya mutt. He started on the fringes and he created the Krishna Consciousness movement in the form of ISKCON. So I would say that if there is a sincere desire to serve, then gradually empowerment comes.
And just because we don’t have a facility, we don’t have to become discouraged. So as compared to a few decades ago, there is certainly a much greater emphasis of our devotee care and gradually some steps are also being taken. Are they enough? Definitely not.
Still, if you consider our movement is just 50 years old, not much more than that. And there is much room for improving many things. So because there are certain definitions of success that are glamorized in our movement also, say something like number of books distributed or number of devotees made or number of temples built.
So that those services get the maximum attention, maximum appreciation. And naturally some other services get relegated to the background. Still, it is possible for us to appreciate the change in ethos that is gradually happening.
And there are devotees forming forums for Varishta Vaishnavas, for Vaishnav care. Hospices are being built in places like Vrindavan and Mayapur is creating some forum for elderly devotees. Much more can be done, but things are being done already.
So that’s the first thing. Second thing is that if devotees feel like this, quite often what happens is there is a generational change and sometimes the generational change can happen quite drastically. And at a particular place, one set of devotees might be leading and they are aware of who all has contributed how much.
But then those devotees depart and the younger generation who comes in, they may not even be aware of the contributions of some devotees from the previous generation. And that’s why it might not be a conscious neglect. It might just be unconscious overlooking.
So those who can, they need to provide the care as much as they can. That means if we according to our capacity can start providing care even for one devotee, two devotees, and care can be something as simple as just making a phone call and talking with them, asking about them, how they are. Small things can also make a difference.
There is a devotee care team which is traveling and giving seminars to inspire local devotees, local communities to come up with initiatives for devotee care. So basically, sometimes things can seem quite dark in the area of devotee care. But if we have a service attitude, then our service attitude, even for devotee care, can become like a small flashlight.
We can illumine the life of one devotee. And if we continue, who knows Krishna can empower us and a flashlight can become a floodlight and we can help many. So one aspect of practice of bhakti is to be cheerful as an austerity of the mind.
Manah prasada saumyatham. Krishna says in 1716 in the Bhagavad Gita that manah prasada, that we need to keep our mind cheerful, satisfied, happy. So try to cultivate that positive disposition no matter what happens.
And in due course, Krishna will provide us more opportunities. Or Krishna may use others, engage others to bring about a change. And at an individual level, devotees who don’t feel cared for, generally while we are going through our life and we are busy doing various services, that is the time we need to care for others.
And if we take time to care for others, ultimately the universe or Krishna are reciprocal. We may not get care from the people whom we give care for, but we will get care from someone or the other. And we need to be open.
That means when we are in our prime and we are doing a lot of services, at that time, we shouldn’t just be doing services and neglecting, connecting with devotees. And at the same time, if we needn’t pin our hopes for reciprocation and care from particular devotees alone, we shouldn’t overvalue those who devalue us and we should value those who value us. So wherever we get some reciprocation, some like-mindedness, we invest ourselves adequately and see that Krishna is reciprocating through them for us.
Thank you. Hare Krishna.