While practicing bhakti, should we be concerned about how the world perceives us?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Question. How much should we be concerned about how people perceive us, if we are practicing bhakti for pleasing Krishna and devotees? Is that alone enough? Or should we also worry about how people perceive us? Answer.
Yes, our essential purpose is definitely to serve and please Krishna and his representatives. At the same time, our central mission of Krishna and his devotees is that we attract people in this world to Krishna’s lotus feet. And for attracting people to Krishna’s lotus feet, it is vital that people see Krishna, Krishna’s mission, Krishna’s message positively.
And so, whatever it takes for helping people have a positive vision of Krishna bhakti, that is also a part of our service to Krishna. Of course, in order to help people get a positive vision, we don’t have to, we don’t have to do things which are completely anti-devotional. But we don’t have to also, so one extreme is that just so that we look good in people’s eyes, we do anything and everything that will please people without considering whether it is in accordance with the principles of bhakti.
The other extreme is that in the name of saying that I am pleasing Krishna, we don’t bother about how people see us or what people think about us at all. We have to have a balance by which we serve Krishna faithfully and at the same time, we try to get people to perceive Krishna positively. So, we see that perception is extremely important.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, when he was traveling and when he came to Puri, at that time, he decided, although King Pratap Rudra wanted to meet him, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu refused to meet him and the main reason Mahaprabhu gave was that he felt people would perceive it negatively that what is a sannyasi doing associating with a king. So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, normally a sadhu should bless somebody who is a spiritual seeker and that’s what purpose of sadhu, one purpose of traveling sadhu’s life is to inspire somebody in spiritual life. And if somebody is meeting a sadhu who is going to inspire that person in their spiritual life, then sadhu should meet them.
But Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was concerned primarily about the perception in this particular situation and therefore, he chose not to meet Pratap Rudra for quite some time. Visishala Prabhupada did the opposite. He went out of his way to meet the head of state that was Indira Gandhi of India.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had said that a sannyasi should not associate with kings, sannyasi should not associate with women. Now, Indira Gandhi was a woman king and yet Prabhupada went out of his way cancelling an international tour to come to India to meet her. Why? Because in this case, that would help him in service of Krishna.
And also, in today, in the modern world, Swami’s reputation would be enhanced by meeting with the head of state. Hardly anyone would say that what is a sadhu doing hobnobbing with the head of state. That indicates attachment.
No, people would not consider it to be attachment today. People would consider it to be positive as something which is going to enhance. Oh, this sadhu must be somebody very special.
That’s why the head of state is meeting him. Then let me know what, let me also find out what the sadhu is all about. What does he teach? What does he stand for? So, Prabhupada, when he was in, when the devotees were doing harinamsana kirtan in the streets of Bengal, some people started throwing coins at them.
And Prabhupada heard this. This happened in other parts of the country also, possibly. So, wherever it happened, Prabhupada came to know about it.
He told the devotees to stop kirtan. Because he said, in Bengal, there are many kirtan mandalis which are beggars who do kirtan and they ask for money. They sing to get alms of money.
And Prabhupada said, we don’t want to be seen like that. We don’t want to be lumped with them. Harinamsana kirtan is a principle of bhakti.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu publicly went out and did harinam. And yet Prabhupada temporarily suspended that just to, suspended an activity that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself had endorsed and performed. And Prabhupada temporarily suspended that because he didn’t want people to get the negative perception.
So, hence, we see from our tradition and our acharyas that they have given due importance to perception management. Now, this is something, an example we need to follow. Now, of course, we could quote other examples about how when it came to core principles of bhakti, even if it meant becoming unpopular in people’s eyes, the acharya stuck to those principles.
So, it’s not that public perception was the sole parameter of their behavior. But public perception was definitely one parameter for consideration in their choice of actions. So, the same applies to us also.
So, for example, if there is a very influential person in society, very wealthy, very well-to-do, very well-known, very, as I said, influential, such a person becomes a devotee and then that person decides to renounce the world. Then, even if that person feels inspired to do that, whether that will lead to greater service is something which needs to be carefully considered, evaluated. So, if in many situations in today’s world, sometimes the people who are in respectable positions in the world, if they stay in that position now for namesake and delegate most of their work to others and then they practice bhakti, share bhakti, then people see that very appreciated, oh, you are such an influential position and yet you are spiritual.
Oh, that means spirituality must be something special. So, I’ll also become, I’ll at least explore spirituality. So, in that sense, if a devotee starts acting in a way, simply become neglecting one’s material life, becoming uncaring about perception and just giving the overall idea that just because I have become a devotee now, I don’t care for anything material, then that perception is quite likely to actually work detrimentally, work counterproductively for many peoples coming closer to Krishna.
Because those people, they start thinking, you know, if I become spiritual and I’ll also have to renounce the world, like I’ll also have to become, give up my various world responsibilities and I’ll become uncaring, I’ll become a pathetic and basically I’ll become unproductive. So, there can be three different conceptions of the interaction of spirituality and spiritual life and material life or spirituality and material knowledge, material comforts, material aspects of life basically. One is that to become spiritual, one needs to renounce the material.
So, we see that some people may consider spirituality as requiring the rejection of material life. That is one aspect, but another can also be that spirituality helps us to attain fulfillment in life, which is not attained by material life. So, no matter how much money we get, how much position we get, how much prestige we get, that will not bring us satisfaction.
We need something more in our life and that more will be provided by spirituality. So, this is also true that we are the body and the soul and gratifying the body alone will not be enough. We need something more.
So, the third aspect of spiritual-material interaction is that by our spirituality, we’ll be able to do our material life better. That we’ll be able to, for example, students will be able to concentrate better. We’ll be able to become more sensitive, more tolerant, more understanding and therefore our relationships will improve.
We will become less uncontrolled in our habits and thus will become more productive in our work. So, this is also an aspect of spirituality. Now, we have to see and all these three are there.
In some senses, spirituality requires the rejection of material life. In other senses, spirituality provides us what material life can’t provide us. So, it’s not rejection, but extension.
So, we may have the material things, but for fulfillment, we need something more. And third could be improvement. Even our material life becomes better by a practice of spirituality.
So, for most people who are in this world and who are pursuing material goals, the first vision of spirituality is very alienating, where they see that, oh, to become spiritual, I’ll have to renounce everything material. I’m not interested in this. And not only do people feel hesitant, people may even become alienated by that.
And a small, significant number of people are all interested in the second version, vision that, oh, yes, I have practiced, I have achieved some material success, but that is not bringing me fulfillment. I need something more in my life. And what is that something more? That is spiritual.
This is especially for people who have achieved some material success. They will see that something more is needed in life for fulfilling life. But most people want to do well materially.
And if for them it is shown that spiritual life involves that by practicing spirituality, you will be able to do your material things better, then that is also a very important way by which those people can be brought closer to Krishna. So, basically, when interacting with others, it’s not so much that we are simply perception managers, because we want people to think good about us. Rather, you know, we are concerned about others’ spiritual life, and we know that they will come closer to Krishna only when they perceive Krishna positively.
So, we try to give a positive perception, not so much because we want to be seen positively, but because we want Krishna to be seen positively, and we want people to come closer to Krishna. So, it’s a service to take care that the perception about Krishna is positive. It’s such that it doesn’t become an obstacle for people to come closer to Krishna.
So, for example, when Sri Prabhupada came to India, and to businessmen in India, he would say that, in Mumbai especially, he said that, see, I started with 40 rupees, and now I have 40 crore rupees. I have temples all over the world which are worth 40 lakh rupees, which are huge amount. You see, when you work for Krishna, it’s very good business.
You get so much. So, sometimes Sri Prabhupada would say to some people that, because I am serving Krishna, see here some Americans and Europeans, they are British, they are serving me. So, people like to have, wealthy people like to have some very famous people as their servants.
But how many Indians have non-Indians as their servants, especially western people as their servants. So, this is of course not the thrust of Prabhupada’s message at all. But to get people to have a positive perception about Krishna Bhakti by which they will explore it more.
And once they explore it more, they will come to understand what Krishna Bhakti is all about. But just to give them the initial flip for exploring, a positive perception is important. So, now for us as devotees, if we learn to give others the positive perception, then, not in the manipulative sense, but in a sense of service attitude, then that is very good.
Because then chances of those people coming closer to Krishna will be increased. So, for example, if somebody is in a very influential position, rather than renouncing the position completely, which makes people think, oh, did you have some failure in your life? Did you get frustrated? That’s why you gave up such a big position. Not many people, those who are spiritual, they may appreciate.
Others may not appreciate. So, then if a person just stays in some position, some materially significant or impressive position, while delegating most of one’s work to others, and then focuses on sharing Krishna Bhakti, arranging programs and speaking themselves or inviting people for programs by influential spiritual teachers, then because that person is in that influential position, people will be attracted. Oh, you are being spiritual? I want to know.
In such a big position if you are spiritual, then spirituality must have some substance. I want to know what it is. And then they will explore more.
So, while talking with people who are largely materially minded, we may have to present not our devotional side, but our material side, because they have no appreciation for the devotional side. So, if we tell people that we chant 16 rounds every day, well, that may impress some people, but others may think, oh, that means, if I become like you, I’ll have to spend two hours every day on this. That may not be the most attractive thing for them to hear.
So, we may tell them that, actually, since I started practicing Krishna Bhakti, that actually I have been, I’ve done this, I’ve done that. So, you may even say that how, if our business has improved, our capacity to resolve conflicts has improved, our capacity to have better relationships with people, better human resource management has come up, because of our enhanced human sensitivity that comes from our spiritual sensitivity. So, we can talk about things which people will be attracted to, just like among students.
If there is one, among the devotees, that the one devotee who is a topper, then when we are telling new people, we don’t say that, okay, this person chants 16 rounds. We’ll say that this person is a university topper. Oh, you are a university topper and you are practicing Bhakti? I also want to practice.
So, it’s simply, actually a common sense principle that we present to Krishna, we present to people that aspect of Krishna Bhakti that will attract them. We are not hiding the other aspects of Krishna Bhakti, but nor do we have to highlight them. Normally, whenever any advertisement is done, you don’t start the advertisement with a prize.
Yes, obviously, everybody knows that there is a prize for this product and we’ll have to pay it. But if the advertisement starts with the prize, that will simply put people off. The first thing the advertisement does is, how are you benefiting from it? So, when we focus on that aspect, this is what people want and what they actually want, they are going to get through Krishna Bhakti also.
Now, Krishna Bhakti will also involve there having to do something which they may not want to do. But that’s a part of the package. Just as if somebody wants to get an expensive smartphone, because it has a lot of features, the smartphone’s ad is primarily going to talk about all the features.
It’s understood that it’s going to cost them and if it’s a lot of attractive features, it is going to cost them a pretty penny. But the point is, in natural, whenever there is communication, we focus on that which is of interest to the other person. And that is how we build a bridge.
So, we don’t deny or reject the aspects of Krishna Bhakti which involve some amount of rejection of some aspects of material life. But that is not what we need to highlight. So, managing our perception is a service to Krishna by helping those souls who are currently estranged from Krishna, who are far away from Krishna to come, to help those souls to come closer to Krishna.
To give them the perception which will inspire them to explore more about Krishna and help them to come closer to Krishna. So, if we see this as a service, then we will do it also efficiently. But when we don’t make this into our only service.
So, we have a service to ourselves, devote ourselves to Krishna. We have a service to the principles of Bhakti. And while doing those, as much as possible, we do this as an additional service where we put in a little amount of time, thought, by which we can present those aspects of Krishna Bhakti, which make sense to people and which attract people to Krishna’s lotus feet.
Thank you. So, we understand that we have to put Krishna first. But still even in