When we see that senior devotees have factual flaws, how should we respond?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Question, when we see that senior devotees have factual flaws and how should we respond? Answer, we need to train ourselves to see senior devotees as exceptional human beings with unexceptional human flaws.
If we see them only as exceptional human beings, now why are they exceptional human beings? Because Krishna explains in 7.3 in the Bhagavad Gita, that among thousands of people, one endeavours to know me and among thousands of those who endeavour to know me, one knows me in truth. So among the millions and billions of people that are there in the world, a very small and significant number of people are actually practicing devotional service. And if somebody has persevered in devotional service for many years, as is necessary if somebody is a senior devotee, then that means that person is definitely a special soul.
So in that sense, we need to see them as exceptional human beings. They are special souls. They are special just in terms of the rarity of what they are doing.
They are special also in the eyes of Krishna because they are going to achieve the ultimate goal of life by pleasing Krishna and returning back to him. They are special also in the sense that they have tread far ahead the path that we are trying to tread right now. So they are exceptional.
But at the same time, if we only see this side of the devotees, then our vision will be utopian. We also need to acknowledge that they have they have unexceptional human faults. Unexceptional human fault clause means that nobody is God except God.
So when the soul becomes devoted to God, the soul can become godly. But still the human limitations are there. You know, when what to speak of senior devotees, even Shila Prabhupada, when Shila Prabhupada would sometimes spell a word wrong or use a word wrong, his editors would wonder.
He is a pure devotee. So what should we do? Should we correct it? Whatever a pure devotee does is perfect. So then they asked Shila Prabhupada himself and Shila Prabhupada said that, actually correct it.
Prabhupada told his editors very clearly. So he said that what a pure devotee does is perfect spiritually. But you should not have, Prabhupada told Jayadvait Maharaj, Satsvarupa Maharaj and other disciples on a morning walk that you should not have a wrong conception of perfection.
The perfection is in the intention of the devotee. The devotee is intending to please Krishna. But at a material level, there might be errors in grammar or pronunciation or something like that.
So that is one level of human limitation that might be present even in an acharya. And that doesn’t in any way blemish the purity or potency of that acharya to give us Krishna. Beyond that, there are other human flaws which are more common, which are not just inescapable human limitations, but are say deficiencies.
For example, we may see some devotees exhibiting behavior that seems proud or that seems envious or whatever like that. So now what we need to understand is that these are all human limitations, human flaws and devotees are practicing a process by which they are getting free from it. So sometimes some residues might be there.
Now, of course, it may also be possible that they may not be flaws at all. It might just be our perception. When Srila Prabhupada came to India, he would insist that when the disciples made posters for his programs, he insisted that they write Bhaktivedanta Swami and initiate the devotees to prepare a poster and his foreign disciples.
Prabhupada said not foreign, write American disciples, American and European disciples. Now we wonder why this was necessary. Prabhupada wanted to make the point that America and Europe at that time were the two glamorized parts of the world in people’s eyes.
Actually Prabhupada wanted to underscore the point that those who Indians were thinking of as their role models, they were actually adopting Indian culture. So that was not for his own glory, but for the for glorification of the message that he was trying to broadcast. So it may well be that we are just misunderstanding.
But even if it happens that there are those flaws fluctually, then also we need to recognize that devotees are in the process by which they are getting purified. And we shouldn’t identify those unexceptional human flaws as the defining characteristics of the devotees. There is the svarupa lakshana and tattvastu lakshana.
The svarupa lakshana is the defining characteristic. The defining characteristic is the krishnaika sharanam, the devotees desire to surrender to Krishna. And all others are subordinate characteristics, secondary characteristics which gradually grow from the primary characteristic.
So when we recognize this point that they can have an exceptional human flaws, unexceptional in the sense that these are present in everyone. And so they are present, but these are going away. And they will go away, the more we become purified.
So if we just see the unexceptional human flaws, then we become critics, we can become offensive. And we cut ourselves off from Krishna’s mercy as well as the inspiration that we can get from our seniors. At the same time, if we focus only on the fact that they are exceptional human beings and try to deny the other part, we will be in a utopia which we will not be able to sustain for a long time.
So we see this balance that they are exceptional human beings with unexceptional human flaws. And those flaws may be just human limitations, those may be deficiencies that they are overcoming. And even if we find that there are deficiencies which are not just our perceptions, but they are actually there, still those should not be our highlight.
We focus on the fact that they are doing something exceptional. And we can take inspiration from that. And if those flaws are too jarring for us, then we can just put that aside.
And put that aside means not try to seek inspiration from that devotee, but then look for some other senior devotee who may also have some flaws, but which do not jar to our sensibilities. And we can get inspiration from those devotees and continue on in Krishna Consciousness. The important principle is not how devotees are in this case.
The important principle is that we have to be discriminating on what is the effect on our consciousness. And we have to do, अनु कुल्ले से संकल्ब परति कुल्ले से वर्चनम। Accept that which is favorable and reject that which is unfavorable. So by that criteria, we choose the association which inspires us and keep moving forward in Krishna Consciousness.