PAMHO! AGTSP! Haribol!
Some of our parents are so much against Krishna conscious. Please share thoughts, possible tips and ideas on how to make them Krishna conscious.
Please forgive me if my post is offensive.
Hare Krishna!
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coz they wud have not know the pastime behind this form...
plz tell them if they want to listen... why He take this type of form for His devotees
Everything is but a lesson. Think of what u can learn from the situation. Certain restrictive enviornments I have been into have taught me that sometimes I might have to forgive myself and let go of certain rituals for a time. Your temple is your body and mind and nothing else. Your true offering is you as you are. You can offer food and chant and do a million things. But just like a man that goes to church on sundays and then proceeds each day in anger. Its the inside job. I am in a place where we often bow to an avatar, I don't agree with that. So whenever I bow I simply say in my head a prayer to my god as I understand him. Get creative, most of all be light hearted and good to yourself. Don't inflict mental punishment because u were not able to chant at the top of your lungs in the morning. Chant in your head. Food offerings were a great idea someone said too. Throughout time people have been persecuted for their religeon and have still been able to hold true to it. Your temple is one hundred percent your body and your mind. Materials aren't bad either. Material attachment is. Nobody can give someone god or the realization. Everyone is their own path and understanding. And everything we experience is for some lesson or growth. You and your parents are teachers too eachother whether u realise it or not. Each one must find their own conception of god as it will be only understood trully, in the heart, individually. Be good to yourself. Smile, relax and do what you can.
Much love.
hare krishna mataji..
however i m unable to advise any devotee.. but as i try my best to absorb my mind in the teachings of respected srila prabhupada as much as i can get from his books, i wud like to say..
just chant and chant.. and do as Rashmi mataji advised. take any krishna conscious advise as an order.. and perform as a service of Our supreme master Krishna.. Thus u will become automatically expectationless in making ur parents krishna conscious coz expecting anything make one weak in krishna consciousness..
Hare Krsna Sandhya Mataji,
PAMHO.
The simplest thing to do is to make prasadam, offer them to Krsna with love and devotion and then offer them to your parents. Everybody likes to eat good food, so nobody will object.
According to me, you should be careful not to preach to them at all. Parents dont like to take advice from their children, especially daughters. You have to preach by your behaviour, not by words. You have to first be strong in your own sadhana, only when you firm up will you be in a position to preach to people who will ask questions in a challenging way. For that, you need to prepare yourself.
Try not to do too much sadhana in front of them, that will too much in their face. You do your sadhana, but without making it obvious to them. For instance, you have to chant. So wake up early and chant. Ideal time is to wake up at 4.00 am. But depending on the routine in your house, try to wake up atleast 1-2 hrs before other members, so that you can finish your rounds before everyone wakes up. This will ensure that you can concentrate on your rounds also. You have to chant without fail your committed rounds every single day. That will give you the energy to withstand resistance and direction on how to deal with the situation apart from growing spiritually.
To read Bhagavad Gita, I think you can achieve that without much ado. Because it is available online also. If you cannot read the hard copy because of their objections, read the soft copy. Otherwise we all are reading something or the other without the whole family knowing, like reading a novel. Maybe you can cover the Gita with brown paper and read like a novel in front of them, so that the objections are minimised.
Your KC friends can visit in normal dress and you can also visit them.
What I am trying to say is that when you are firmed up in your sadhana, you will have changes in behaviour - like more patient, always willing to help, temper will also reduce, more content, more happy. Parents are sure to notice this and then only they will attempt to find out what ISKCON is all about and then only accept that this is a tried and tested method.
Therefore, be patient and DONT preach to them at all. You can keep them in your prayers and pray to Krsna to give them also His mercy.
A woman's life is all about balancing and adjusting mataji. So please learn from now only. You have to balance their expectations with your desires and arrive at a win win situation for both. Then it will work. If you are a student, study with more diligence. Please be more adjusting to your parents than your pre-KC days. Only one thing is not negotiable - chanting. When you do so much and they also love you, they realise that you are doing so much, and chanting is very important to you, then they will also bend and start adjusting to your way of life and may even change their way of life.
Best of luck mataji.
Haribol,
Your servant,
Rashmi
Hari bol... Pray from the heart...and chant few extra rounds for their advancement...it works
Hare Krishna..
Parents are against Krishna consciousness because they dont want their kids to realize self and reach GOD. They want their kids to live a materialistic way of life, where they study, do the jobs/businesses, earn money, marry and finally die. They are scared of the society. They cannot imagine their kids talking about God. They think that their kids may leave everything and go away in search of GOD. Only when you have material posessions, will you be recognized in the society, is what they think. The whole concept of GOD and realizing the self was lost many years ago. They do not know that, what Krishna taught us is the most important subject which explains how we should live and what is the ultimate goal of one's life. It is parent's responsibility to teach their kids about GOD and explain the ways of life as described by GOD. But we are in a very pitiful state. Kids dont know where they are going and they are lost when they grow up. They dont find any answers when they are striken by miseries and finally, they are going to the extent of taking their lives away.
Coming to your question on how to make them Krishna conscious, they say that only by God's grace can any person achieve the path of bhakthi. Parents feel that they are the masters of their future. But they dont know that they are in the clutches of the material energy. If they are ignorant towards GOD, then GOD will keep them in ignorance. Not just in this life, but for many many lives. They will go down and down and they may finally get the birth as one among the animals. Krishna, in Bhagavad Gita says that we should not unsettle the minds of ignorant people. When we try to do that, they will get agitated. But, as good devotees of Lord Krishna, we feel pity on the people we live with. We feel that they are innocent and deprived of knowledge and so we try to enlighten them.
So, I request you to do your part in sharing knowledge about GOD, with your parents, at right times. But do not expect them to realize and follow the same. As Krishna says, do your duty without expecting any result. May Krishna's grace be upon you and your family....
My father told me that he brought me into this world and that he has all the rights to decide my faith and lifestyle. Every conversation with him ends up in an argument. I have almost given up but still I pity him because he couldn't taste the nectar of the Lord.
May I ask what exactly was the argument about?