Why do we glorify George Harrison so much when he was not chanting 16 rounds or following the regulative principles?

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Question Why do we glorify George Harrison so much When He was not Even changing sixteen rounds Or following the four regulatory principles Answer We glorify him For the extraordinary Service that he did And for the courage that is required For doing that service We shouldn’t have a Stereotyped definition Of Who can contribute To sharing Krishna’s mission And What Precisely Should be the borderline For such contributions So We shouldn’t Glorify George Harrison For what He was not For example Many devotees try to Possibly Out of ignorance or whatever reason Try to glorify George Harrison as a As a ISKCON devotee Now He was not As a matter of fact There is this conversation Between him and Michael Grand Mukund Goswami Which is published in Chant and Be Happy Wherein He clearly Expresses devotional convictions Without any hesitation He even talks about how academic scholars are Spiritually bankrupt and he says I am like a plainclothes devotee So Yogeshwar Prabhu, one of Prabhupada’s disciples Joshua Green Who is also a movie producer He has written a book About George Harrison’s Life from a spiritual Perspective It’s called Here Comes the Sun And there he describes that George Harrison Went through phases in his spiritual life And He may not have been Chanting 16 rounds We do not know After I read his book I asked Yogeshwar Prabhu a mail About George Harrison’s spiritual commitments Throughout his life So we do not know Nobody was doing follow-up to him Either chanting 16 rounds So he had a great attraction to Krishna He loved to chant Krishna’s names But how much he specifically chanted We do not know Now there may be some devotees Who are close to him Who may make some claims That he was chanting these many rounds And who knows, they may be true also But If we try to Prove to the world That George Harrison was a 16-rounder devotee and therefore We should chant 16 rounds That is not an argument that can be sustained Through third-party evidence There is no neutral evidence that can support that And to many people Many discerning people It will appear as if We are trying to Appropriate George Harrison To propagate our own ideology And this will Not only alienate them This can also alienate Other people, for example George Harrison’s family members Or even other VIPs Many VIPs Want spiritual solace But they have the experience That If they go to a spiritual organization Rather than they getting spiritual solace Their name gets used By that organization For promoting themselves Promoting that organization itself And this is what they do not want In fact there are many Bollywood stars Who are connected with ISKCON And whose connection Is based on the Implicit understanding that devotees Who are connected with them Will not Talk about their connection in public And they are happy To learn about Krishna Consciousness Even practice some devotional practices But they don’t want to appear In public Because firstly They have had bad experiences Of other organizations appropriating their name For their own purposes And secondly They also Have a significant Professional hazard in that In today’s society If a person is connected with religion Or God Often That has a negative effect on the person’s image Especially in terms of cultural appeal So In that terms what George Harrison did At that time was Revolutionary In the west Which was predominantly Christian Although Christianity was waning And is still waning Especially in Europe And although At that time Materialism was the norm Which it is increasingly He wrote songs like My Sweet Lord Where he is directly talking about God And love for God It was a tremendous act of courage And it could have led to The end of his whole career But he was ready to Take that risk And actually through his songs In which he had Hallelujah and Hare Krishna That was the first introduction To Krishna Consciousness To the Hare Krishna Mahamantra For thousands Even millions of people So Yogeshwar Prabhu in his book Writes about how George Harrison’s Preparation of the songs Like My Sweet Lord And other songs in which the Hare Krishna Mahamantra Was there was one way In which he In which the prophecy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in every town And village, my holy name will be chanted Was fulfilled Because his songs were chanted In every town and village And practically speaking They were so popular at that time Maybe not so much in the third world But in all of the first world Europe, America Australia Even in India he was popular Maybe not that much as Could have been But The point was that Millions of people got introduced To the holy name through The songs of George Harrison And then they enquired further And that’s how they became Open and then subsequently They started to be serious about Krishna Consciousness Thousands of devotees Thousands of people who Eventually have become serious devotees Their first introduction, first positive Introduction to devotional service was through George Harrison So he sang the holy names publicly He glorified God publicly He introduced Krishna Consciousness Chanting of the holy names To millions of people And he became in a sense the Patapadarsha Guru for thousands of people Who have become serious devotees now So these are all Extraordinary services And Few of us will be able to Render those kind of services In our lives It was because of his material position And his material talent that he was able to Render that service, that is true But the willingness to use that Material talent and Material resource, material Position in Krishna’s Service is itself an act of Courage, it’s an act of sacrifice It’s an act of devotion So now because of Whatever circumstances He was primarily Inspired by Srila Prabhupada and when Srila Prabhupada departed from the planet He could not He had devotee friends but still It was different, he was Such a big person In terms of His social status At one time When one planet was Discovered around Jupiter, that planet was Named after George Harrison by popular Demand, so he had that kind of Phenomenal popularity So the devotees could not preach to him As we preach to a new Bhakta, he was very humble in his own Way and he was He was spiritually inclined Devotionally inclined specifically And we know he wrote the Forward to Krishna book And that enabled So many people to become open to Krishna book So we as Devotees should Glorify George Harrison for what he did And that was remarkable At the same time we should not go Overboard and Make statements that are not Factually true, statements About George Harrison’s level Of commitment to Krishna consciousness Statements about What all he did Which he actually did not do What he did was glorious enough And if we just present the facts The facts are there in his Songs, the facts are there in his Written statements, in books Like Chant and Be Happy And the facts are there in his meetings with Shri Prabhupada Which are recorded in Conversations And those facts are themselves Inspiring enough They are extraordinary enough And the effect Has also been extraordinary So rather than trying to Exaggerate the facts And therefore Alienate intelligent people We can just present the Facts and Let people become attracted by that Krishna can attract people Through everyone, even through George Harrison So regarding Initiation Prabhupada told, he asked We can see his Willingness to commit When he said that, he asked Prabhupada At one time, would you like me to join full time Like the other devotees And Prabhupada said, no, you have talent Use that in Krishna’s service, you write songs About Krishna And then also He was So the very fact that he was ready to Ask this and consider this Indicated his seriousness So there are many other factors Which also come Into the picture, but the most important Point is, what a person has Done for Krishna is If it is remarkable, that needs to be Appreciated. Yes, he was Not a 16th rounder devotee following The four regulative principles At least not throughout his life And we don’t have to Speak that to And misrepresent the facts At the same time, because He was not doing that, it doesn’t mean that his Contribution was not great, and that His commitment to The cause of Krishna was not Extraordinary.
We have to Have a balance which Indicates, which is based on the Facts and which also presents The implication of those facts In a factual way Thank you