THE ART OF PREACHING

Hare krishna,

 

The ninth offense is to preach the glories of the holy name of God to a faithless person who is not interested in hearing them.” Does it not negate the obligation for every Vaishnava to preach and spread Krishna consciousness to the uninitiated and the ignorant with maybe even blasphemous views of Krishna. Should we leave them, the ignorant and the blasphemous sinners as such or try to change them positively?(question by amit)

reply by 
Madhudvisa dasa
There is no point whatsoever in preaching to a person who is not at least a bit submissive and a bit interested in hearing what you have to say. The art of preaching is first to find the right person to preach to. A preacher will avoid the envious and the demons and preach to the innocent. It is an offense to preach to the faithless because that sort of preaching will have a bad effect. An atheist for example does not believe in God. So if you tell him to surrender to Krishna he will just get angry and become blasphemous and become a bigger offender.
  • There is a big difference between an ignorant person and a faithless person. It is not that the preacher ignores the ignorant. Practically everyone is ignorant of Krishna consciousness, the preacher has to have the ability to differentiate between the envious, the innocent and the devotees. He avoids the envious, he preaches to the innocent and he associates with the devotees. And he is always searching for the association of devotees who are more advanced than him. This is actually the madhyam-adhikari platform. The first platform of Krishna consciousness is Kanista-adhikari and that is a dangerous position because a kanistha can not tell the difference between an envious person, an innocent person and a devotee. So he does not know who to preach to, who to avoid or who to associate with. And preaching to the wrong person is offensive and associating with the wrong person can destroy our spiritual advancement and accepting someone who is not a pure devotee of Krishna as his spiritual master will be a very big problem in his spiritual life.

    So the idea is really preaching is for the madhyam-adikaris, and we should not remain on the kanistha platform–we have to advance to the madhyam platform–then we can preach, we can understand who to preach to, who to avoid and who to associate with…

    Of course an expert devotee can preach to anyone and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has shown this by his activities. He was very concerned about engaging the mayavadis and the impresonalists in Krishna consciousness. And He was making plans how they could also be swept up in the ocean of love of Godhead which was inundating the world because of His Sankirtan movement.

    There are ways of preaching to the envious. We can chant Hare Krishna in Sankritan on the streets and the envious people will hear it and they may get a little upset but if the chanting is being done by pure devotees it will be powerful and will touch their hearts. We can distribute Krishna prasadam and get them to take Krishna’s mercy in this way and it will act. We can sell them one of Srila Prabhupada’s books and they will give some of their hard-earned money to pay for the book, and this is ‘ajnata-sukriti’. They are giving some contribution to help in the spreading of the Krishna consciousness movement so that will be very purifying for them and that will be their qualification to read and understand the book and by associating with Srila Prabhupada and Krishna through the book they will be purified.

    But we can not jump up and down in front of an envious person and demand that they surrender to Krishna and chant Hare Krishna. Preaching the philosophy can only be done to the innocent, sincere people.

    Many people are innocent and if you start to talk to them about Krishna they will like to hear it. But some people if you mention God will immediately get angry. So there is no point arguing with them. It will have bad results. Better to give them a sweet-ball (prasadam) and go on to the next person…

     

    I REQUEST THE DEVOTEES TO SHED MORE LIGHT ON THIS DISCUSSION  REGARDING HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE WHOM TO PREACH AND WHOM NOT AND AT WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES?

    Additionally most of the ignorent non envious people are demigod worshippers.They may not believe in your words.when we try to convience them giving sastric reference, they get angry on their defeat and them commit vaishnava aparadha or blaspheme Krishna.how to deal with such situation ?

    I would also ask the deotees to specify the problem they face while chanting so that we can have a better idea of how to deal with the situation

    LET THIS DISCUSSION ACT AS THE GUIDEBOOK OF THE ART OF PREACHING.

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Replies

  • Volunteer

    Q. HOW TO PREACH, WHEN TO PREACH, WHERE TO PREACH AND WHO TO PREACH TO ?‏

    http://www.iskcondesiretree.net/group/krishnaconsciousness/forum/to...

    Q. WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PREACHING WORK OF THE DEVOTEES ?‏

    http://www.iskcondesiretree.net/group/krishnaconsciousness/forum/to...

  • Volunteer

    Who should preach?

    By preaching we can burn up the effects of our offenses.
    By helping others to be Krishna conscious, we attract the
    mercy of Krishna in a very quick manner and we can
    advance very quickly. For those who are liberated, there
    is also a special rasa when they go out to preach and that
    is what the Lord wants. So whether one is very neophyte
    or one is a liberated soul, they can all engage in preaching.
    Only the liberated soul can engage in nirjana bhajana, i.e.,
    only the nitya-siddhas can engage in nirjana bhajana.
    But preaching can be done by everyone; it is not that you
    have to be a neophyte in order to preach.

    Preaching becomes more effective when someone is
    advanced in Krishna consciousness. So all of our acaryas
    in our disciplic succession were engaged in this preaching
    activity. There were a few nitya-siddhas who were engaged
    in bhajana, but they were writing. They were also preaching
    in their own way.

    So the offense is if a neophyte devotee is thinking that I
    am on the same level as Rupa Gosvami in Vrndavana and
    imagines that, "I am a liberated soul, and I am with Radha
    and Krishna". This is an offense to those nitya-siddhas.

    When through one's devotional service one is so purified
    and Krishna or the guru reveals one's own eternal relationship
    with the Lord, then internally one can start to worship the
    Lord following that revelation. Still externally one would go
    on with one's devotional service.

    Froma the book, "Vaishnava Vani", by H.H.Jayapataka Swami

  • Volunteer
    Chapter 18. Conclusion--The Perfection of Renunciation

    TEXT 67

    idam te natapaskaya 
    nabhaktaya kadacana 
    na casusrusave vacyam 
    na ca mam yo 'bhyasuyati

    TRANSLATION

    This confidential knowledge may not be explained to those who are not austere, or devoted, or engaged in devotional service, nor to one who is envious of Me.

    PURPORT

    Persons who have not undergone the austerities of the religious process, who have never attempted devotional service in Krsna consciousness, who have not tended a pure devotee, and especially those who are conscious of Krsna as a historical personality or who are envious of the greatness of Krsna, should not be told this most confidential part of knowledge. It is, however, sometimes found that even demoniac persons who are envious of Krsna, worshiping Krsna in a different way, take to the profession of explaining Bhagavad-gita in a different way to make business, but anyone who desires actually to understand Krsna must avoid such commentaries on Bhagavad-gita. Actually the purpose ofBhagavad-gita is not understandable to those who are sensuous--even if one is not sensuous but is strictly following the disciplines enjoined in the Vedic scripture, if he is not a devotee, he also cannot understand Krsna. Even when one poses himself as a devotee of Krsna, but is not engaged in Krsna conscious activities, he also cannot understand Krsna. There are many persons who envy Krsna because He has explained in Bhagavad-gita that He is the Supreme and that nothing is above Him or equal to Him. There are many persons who are envious of Krsna. Such persons should not be told of Bhagavad-gita, for they cannot understand. There is no possibility of faithless persons' understanding Bhagavad-gita and Krsna. Without understanding Krsna from the authority of a pure devotee, one should not try to comment upon Bhagavad-gita.

    ==========================================================================================

    In my opinion, we shouldn't really force anyone or annoy anyone. If people accept they accept, if they don't you pray to Krsna to shed some mercy on them. I recently had a book distribution at my college - some people took Srila Prabhupada's books, while others didn't. But they all ended up buying Prasadam (granted they were in line to buy some prasadam, but still, the point remains the same). 

    a few months/years ago I watched a video on preaching, and the main theme was to not argue with anyone. Christian people, in particular, loved to take up time and argue without going anywhere... an otherwise pointless conversation that took up precious time. 

    regardless, I think that we should preach to everyone. For those who don't take interest, we smile, wish them the best and move on. The important thing is we aren't a religion or a cult, so the only reason we preach is to share and spread the knowledge and love of God - the fast route. 

    But one question I have is - would it be improper to preach bhakti in a sense that says Christians or Muslims, etc. can follow. Most people are very strict in terms of their religious followings, so when someone else intrudes or gives another idea, they argue. So a possible way of handling this is to just preach love of God to these people. It's "their" God, but it's just a different take on how they look at God. Each religion does have some aspect of bhakti in it, a great example i can think of is Sufism in Islam, which isn't bhakti in the bhakti-yoga sense, but the point of Sufism is to sort of "become one with the Divine" and just open up the doors to feeling love of God. So when we do preach KC, would it be improper to preach to those not interested the path of loving one's "own" God (since we all know that God is one, but to some people in different religions they feel that their God is THE God). 

    =========================================================================================

    My thinking is that we should preach regardless of the person and follow the example of Lord Nityananda who is our original spiritual master. Even Prabhupada went to the west and preached to people who were pretty much non-religious, and either hippies and/or drug addicts... 

    I had an experience at the Ratha Yatra last year I think, where me and this homeless person were talking and he was saying his views, and me mine, but he listened intently and he thanked me for the conversation. The highlight was he got to hear Krsna's name, which is quite wonderful, and that's important thing. If they aren't interested, we should definitely stop preaching emphatically, rather we preach subtlety, but we never give up preaching. Madhudvisa prabhu mentioned, it's better to give some Prasadam and move on... BUT, what if that person threw the prasadam in the trash or something... i mean there are always going to be negative actions on the parts of some people, and there always will be Vaishnava Aparadha in that sense, but should we differentiate between sharing love of God out of fear of Vaishnava Aparadha on our behalf? By preaching to people, we open the doors to Vaishnava Aparadha that others may commit knowingly or unknowingly, so should we just "abandon" people with such a great burden? 

    Further, it is also Vaishnava Aparadha to hear it and not leave the spot, which adds to the paradox of what we should do.

    Linky: http://nitaaiyoga.com/2010/09/04/hearing-a-vaishnava-aparadha-is-as...

    Vaisnava-aparadha is the most dangerous atomic bomb, devastating force that may completely stop our devotional life.

    yadi vaishnava-aparadha uthe hati mata
    upade va chinde, tara sukhi’ yaya pata

    Shri Chaitanya Charitamrita Madhya 19.156

    TRANSLATION:

    “If the devotee commits an offense at the feet of a Vaishnava while cultivating the creeper of devotional service in the material world, his offense is compared to a mad elephant that uproots the creeper and breaks it. In this way the leaves of the creeper are dried up.”

    It is written in Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.74.40:

    nindam bhagavatah srnvams
    tat-parasya janasya va
    tato napaiti yah so ’pi
    yaty adhah sukrtac cyutah

    TRANSLATION:

    “A person who does not promptly leave that place where blasphemy of Bhagavan or His dedicated devotee, the Vaisnava, is perpetrated, becomes bereft of all his previously accumulated spiritual merit (sukrti) and meets with degradation.”

    That is a great danger. If we are just sitting and listening to anyone who is committing Vaishnava aparadha, we are as guilty as he or she is because we are there. If we leave to whom he will speak? So, the best way to stop this activity is to leave. Just leave. In that way you will save yourself and the offender, because he will stop to speak.

    There are three ways to free oneself from Vaishnva Aparadha:

    (1) TO GENUINELY BEG FORGIVENESS FROM THE VAISHNAVA OFFENDED:

     

    ye vaishnava-sthane aparadha haya yara

    puna se ksamile a paradha ghuce tara

     

    If one offends a Vaishnava, the only way to get free from the offense is to go back that Vaishnava and beg his forgiveness. (Cb. Madhya 22.32)

     

    kanta phute yei mukhe, sei mukhe yaya

    paye kanta phutile ki kandhe bahiraya

     

    Just as it takes a thorn to remove a thorn, the offense committed by the mouth [against a Vaishnava] must be cured with the mouth [by begging forgiveness]. (CB Antya 4.380)

     

    (2) BY CHANTING THE NAME OF LORD NITYANANDA CONSTANTLY:

     

    nityananda-prasade se ninda yaya ksaya

    nityananda-prasade se visnu-bhakti haya

     

    Only by the causeless mercy of of the name, form and pastimes of Lord Nityananda, one's offenses against Vaishnavas are destroyed and one attains devotional service of Lord Krishna.(CB Madhya 22.136)

     

    (3) BY READING THE ORIGINAL BENGALI VERSES OF CHAITANYA-BHAGAVATA,
    MADHYA-KHANDA CHP 22 DAILY OR REGULARLY:

     

    e bada adbhuta katha suna savadhane

    vaishnava aparadha ghuce ihara sravane

     

    Listen carefully to this wonderful pastime of how Shri Shachimata got delivered from her offense against Shrila Advaita Acharya in this Chp 22. By hearing or reading this narration one will be become from the Vaishnava aparadha committed. (CB Madhya 22.12)

    To conclude - I think we should remember Lord Nityanada's lotus feet constantly and preach to everyone. As devotees, we sacrifice our lives to share this amazing love of God to people who are bewildered by material nature, so naturally there will be offenses by others. 

    I myself am confused at this point, and I'm hesitating to post this reply, but please forgive me for any errors on my part and please guide me through past such thinking. 

    Your Servant for eternity.

    (PS: as a side note to answer Rajesh Prabhu's second topic - my mind drifts a lot and I am on the computer a lot, and so what I am thinking about doing is listening to some Kirtana or maybe a narration of the Krsna book, and pull up a slideshow of Krsna Pictures)

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