Why is Krishna selectively merciful in inspiring some people to take to bhakti and not others?

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Transcript

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Thank you. Krishna is selectively merciful. He is merciful to some people not to others.
Sometimes we are able to take to Krishna bhakti but our relatives despite our best efforts don’t take up. So is it that Krishna is not being merciful to them? No. Any relationship is always reciprocal.
See love can be unidirectional but loving relationship has to be bidirectional. We can love someone if that person doesn’t love us then we can’t really love us back. We can’t have a relationship.
So Krishna loves everyone but even though he is God and he is omnipotent he has given each one of us free will and he respects that free will. He doesn’t intrude on that free will and that’s why he does not force anyone to take Krishna bhakti. So if somebody is not taking Krishna bhakti it is not that Krishna is not merciful.
It is that that person is not choosing to take it up and that’s because that person, the time may not be right the person’s certain background certain conceptions might be there which are holding them back. So now sometimes we may say that when somebody takes Krishna bhakti is this Krishna’s mercy? Then we say somebody is not taking Krishna bhakti is it that Krishna is not mercy? No. The thing is Krishna’s mercy is there but Krishna’s mercy has to be has to be accepted and used just like if crops grow in a place for that the rains have to be there so when the rains grow, when the crops grow nicely the farmer may say oh it is good that the rains came because of the rains the crops have grown.
That is correct but suppose some place weeds are growing can we say oh the rains have not fallen? The rains may have fallen but there something else has been sown. Seeds have not been grains have not been sown so grain harvest is not there. Weeds are there.
The point is Krishna’s mercy is always available but certain people may not be ready to take up the process right now. So it is not that Krishna is selectively merciful rather we are all differently receptive and depending on our receptivity we can or cannot take Krishna’s mercy we not can or cannot. We do or do not take Krishna’s mercy Now what can we do? In general if we want to influence others there are only three things that we can do we can share knowledge set an example and provide facilities so when I became a brahmachari my family was scandalized so very upset then I wanted them to become devotees so I asked one senior sannyasi, I asked Jai Dvait Maharaj now how should I preach to my family members he said by letting anyone except you preach to them by letting anyone except you preach to them he said your parents they have seen you as a small baby they cannot accept you as a spiritual teacher let others preach to them and quite often the relationship, our relationship with our family members, there are many dynamics in that relationship and to get the spiritual dynamic doesn’t become prominent so often they may need some other so yes my father got introduced he is based in Nasik so he got introduced in Nasik to devotees and then he did not become a devotee because of me, I think he became a devotee in spite of me although I behaved insensitively I did a lot of messy things but somehow other devotees were very kind and by that he has become a devotee now so he is devotionally inclined so it is something which we have to see that what can we may provide knowledge but you know providing knowledge is only one aspect of becoming a devotee people need a conducive environment so if their parents are of a particular generation then maybe if there are some other devotees of that age group, that generation that will be more of thinking then that may, so that is the second part is providing facility so we can see parents may want their children to become devotees but you know children, they also want their own social group so that is why many places parents may homeschool their children or parents may start some schools devotee schools so that they have children have spiritual association there bhakti can be reinforced so they need a facility so everyone needs a facility to take to Krishna bhakti so what we can do is not just give knowledge but also provide some facility wherever it is possible and third is set an example set an example means that if our relatives see see within bhakti we have our devotional definitions of success wakes up and chants around early in the morning or reads Bhagavatam everyday does VT worship everyday see these are insider definitions of success they are important of course for our spiritual advancement but outside people what they are going to see is how has your bhakti made you a better person because of our bhakti practice we have become more kind more gentle, more tolerant more sensitive, more respectful more helpful then they will see my daughter has become a better daughter my sister, my brother they have become a better person because of this bhakti so unfortunately because of our spiritual practices rather than becoming more sensitive and tolerant we become more judgmental you are a meat eater we have all kinds of things these are standards which we shouldn’t apply on others to judge people see standards are meant for inspiration and elevation they are not meant for condemnation sometimes we become judgmental towards others and that alienates people so if we provide knowledge, we may give some books we may give some lectures some audio links, some video CDs or something like that then we provide a facility by which they can come closer to Krishna in a way that is suited for them and then we set an example we try to become a better relative in that relationship then by that sooner or later they will come to Krishna