Hare krishna,I m 22 yrs old and its been two years i have been in KC.It feels weird when a person who is 2 times elder to you calls you "mataji". I know its their way to respect women like mother and sister. It feels like if i call 5 year old kid "mataji" doesnt sound weird? Plz help me out.
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Dear devotee Hare Krsna, when your with your family and close freinds it may not be apropriate. we should not disturb them if they have always called us like that. I do not call my sister mother it was never our way of dealing and she would feel uncomfortable. Our beloved Gurudev asked us to address the ladies like this in the institution and many of us follow this. Not all follow but we encorage it and I have personal experience that it has helped keep a higher level of respect for each other when men and women are working together in the temple. Married men should also behave like brahmacari with ladies other than their wife. If they call their wifes freinds mataji that is most respectful and you should see it like that. I was married for 28 years and followed this while living in the west. ISKCon is an international society in which we all work together to please Guru and Krsna. So at least in the temple the devotees follow this etiqeette, this Krsna conscious culiure.
Dear devotee Hare Krsna, It may feel wierd in the begining but we get used to it. By seeing all the ladies as mother accept for your wife is a very civilised culture. And seeing the man following this culture gives a llot of confidence to the ladies. They can feel they are in the company of chaste men who honor there purity. By following this highly cultured social system we all get strenth to remain as pure as possible. I also call the little girls mataji and they get used to it. And then in youth when a man addresses them by their name it will feel wierd. Only my family and husband can be so familiar. So this mood is created and that will reduce this flirting which is so prominent in this modern times.
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But they call "mataji" outside the temple too.
and call us by our name?
Dear devotee Hare Krsna, when your with your family and close freinds it may not be apropriate. we should not disturb them if they have always called us like that. I do not call my sister mother it was never our way of dealing and she would feel uncomfortable. Our beloved Gurudev asked us to address the ladies like this in the institution and many of us follow this. Not all follow but we encorage it and I have personal experience that it has helped keep a higher level of respect for each other when men and women are working together in the temple. Married men should also behave like brahmacari with ladies other than their wife. If they call their wifes freinds mataji that is most respectful and you should see it like that. I was married for 28 years and followed this while living in the west. ISKCon is an international society in which we all work together to please Guru and Krsna. So at least in the temple the devotees follow this etiqeette, this Krsna conscious culiure.
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