Hare Krishna! All glories to H.D.G Srila Prabhupada! All Glories to Guru Dev!I have a question I am hoping some more knowledgable and advanced devotees can answer for me. I live in a place, which I am sure like many places in the west now, have many many people who have never heard of Lord Krishna or Srila Prabhupada. The few that do know about it are older men and women who remember the days when Krishna Consciousness was first brought to the west by the most glorious mercy of His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada. I try my very best to introduce everyone I come in contact with to Krishna in some way or another. I will chant the Mahamantra so that they can hear, or speak to them of Srila Prabupada. I will show them photos of Sri Sri Radha-Krishna, Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai or of Lord Jagannath. I distribute Prasadam laddus to them and do my best to have them get the association of The Lord however best I can bring it to them. My question is, what kind of benefit does this give them? Simply by hearing His name, do they receive some relief from the karmic cycle? Even if they do not know what they are doing, can they receive the mercy of The Lord while serving Him? For instance I have a friend who came to visit, who is very open minded to all spirituality. While he was here I had the curtain to our home altar open. He was admiring our Deities, and taking Darshan of them. He had no idea who they were, except that they where linked in some way to "Hinduism". He was asking why there was a peacock fan by the altar and I told him that on hot days we fan the Deities to cool their transcendental bodies. He seemed very interested and asked since it was summer time if he could fan them for a little while. I thought it was Krishna possibly pulling at his heart to engage him in service, so I asked him to wash his hands and then gave him the fan. He very nicely fanned our Deities for a good 10 minutes while chanting the Mahamantra. So I guess my question is, if someone is servicing The Lord and don't even know who He is, do they receive benefit? What if someone simply hears the Holy Name of Krishna even if they don't know what it means? Is there a word for such devotion? I know that during Ratha Yatra, Lord Jagannath is so merciful in taking to the streets to spread His Mercy to everyone who He glances at. What kind of benefit does this actually give to those who have no clue, or possibly even have some negative connotation associated with it?Thank you in advanceJai Nimai-Nitai!
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Krsna is so merciful, the holy name is so merciful, that accidentally hearing or chanting or chanting with offence also has benefits. It doesnt matter that the person involved is not aware ofthe philosophy. It is said that the gopis were not all of them on the same platform. Some of them were yogis in their previous birth, they wanted to embrace Rama, then they were told their desire will be fulfilled by Krsna. SOme gopis were not even aware that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they were attracted to Him physically, still they attained the highest perfection.
YOu are doing very good service - your friend did very good by fanning their lordships.
Replies
Hare Krsna Prabhuji,
PAMHO.
Krsna is so merciful, the holy name is so merciful, that accidentally hearing or chanting or chanting with offence also has benefits. It doesnt matter that the person involved is not aware ofthe philosophy. It is said that the gopis were not all of them on the same platform. Some of them were yogis in their previous birth, they wanted to embrace Rama, then they were told their desire will be fulfilled by Krsna. SOme gopis were not even aware that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they were attracted to Him physically, still they attained the highest perfection.
YOu are doing very good service - your friend did very good by fanning their lordships.
Very nice to read about these things.
Haribol,
Your servant,
Rashmi