While speaking from shastra should we consider what people will feel about it?

Anwser Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So when we are sharing Krishna Consciousness with others, sometimes we hesitate to speak some points to them because we may fear what will they think about it.
So is this desirable? Answer? It is essential that we understand, at least to some extent, what the effect of our speaking a particular point on others is going to be. Because sometimes some people get alienated by something which is not really important for us. In Dalai Lama, there is a description that Prabhupada, I think it was somewhere in Europe, he was giving a student’s class.
And that time there was a lot of influence of communism. The idea was everybody should be equal. So Prabhupada, the devotees had arranged a huge assassin.
And they were sitting on a big thing and it looked like a king. And several students made a lot of noise and protested, you know. Why do you have to sit on such a big seat? So Prabhupada said, the seat is simply a symbol of honour for one who is giving knowledge.
I don’t need a seat. I can sit anywhere. But Prabhupada said, ultimately we also believe in equality.
But some of the students got very agitated. And the whole class was like a very noisy affair, rowdy, noisy affair. So the next time when Prabhupada was giving class, Prabhupada said, in this kind of public place, don’t put such a big seat.
Have a simple chair. So now the tradition is that the assassin is quite elegant. And if we understand that it is the asini who is sitting there.
But Prabhupada was ready to adjust that, just to avoid unnecessary provocation to people. So it’s as simple as if a patient, if a doctor is giving a medicine to a patient, the doctor needs to know what to expect. The purpose of the medicine is to cure the patient.
But sometimes there are side effects. Sometimes there are complications, not because the medicine itself is problematic, but because the patient has a particular case history. So to know if certain things are going to have a certain effect, it is important to know that for us.
And the more we can know what is the effect on people, the more we can ensure that we don’t speak things that unnecessarily alienate people. So, for example, here in America, in India, traditionally we use the word he to refer to everyone. It’s a common reference to humanity.
But people don’t like it here. They say he or she. Anyone who uses he or she, they ask often, why don’t you use he first? Why not she first? So nowadays the trend is just to use the common common pronoun they.
So now for some people it may not be a big issue. Some people it may be a big issue. And English is particularly messy here because English does not have a singular non-gender pronoun.
They is a plural. But nowadays people are using they as singular because English doesn’t have a singular non-gender neutral pronoun. But everyone has to be aware of this.
Otherwise people just feel that you are being gender biased. So it’s one thing for the doctor to be aware that what is the desired effect of this particular medication and what are the possible effects. So the doctor can, if a particular patient has a particular complication, they can avoid a particular part of the medicine or particular part of the treatment, adapt it accordingly.
So like that being aware is good. Now what is not good is that if something is essential to tell, like the medicine is important to give, but the doctor doesn’t give it just because the patient will have some pain because of it. So that means there is unavoidable pain, there is essential pain, there is unavoidable, essential pain and there is avoidable pain.
So say if I am afraid of, very afraid of needles, but my blood has to be tested and even if I feel fearful, the doctor will have to, doctor or nurse will come and they will give injection. They will inject some, to take out the blood. Now that is something which cannot be avoided.
But suppose it once happened that I was in hospital for many days and lot of syringes had been given. So like my whole, almost my arm was filled with syringe holes. So at that time the nurse when they came, actually they spent a lot of time trying to find a place where there was not already a hole.
Because what happened there is it will actually cause a lot of pain. So now they have to prick the body but if it is already pricked somewhere, you prick again, it will cause too much pain. So there the pricking pain is unavoidable but the pricking at a particular location may cause too much pain and that can be avoided.
So like that we all have to select, we all have to be aware that there are certain truths which we have to tell. But some people may be very proud of their bodies and we tell them you are not the body. We can’t change that for them.
Is it? But that’s fine. But it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be sensitive about whatever we are speaking. So there is sensitivity and there is fidelity.
Fidelity means faithfulness. So both have to be balanced properly. And it’s not that there is a clear path that we can always chart.
Sometimes we may air towards being too much sensitive to the audience and we don’t speak our points well enough. Sometimes we may air towards the side of speaking our points but they are not sensitive to the audience. So over a period of time we learn experience.
Sometimes it goes this way, sometimes it goes this way. Overall, a course correction comes back on track. So like that we move on.
It’s good to be sensitive but it’s not good to let other people’s feelings alone determine our decisions. So other people’s feelings should definitely be considered while we make our decisions. But letting the other people’s feelings alone make our decision, alone determine our decision, that is not good.
Does that answer your question?