I try to use my clicker and chant as much as I can at work. I do it quietly and usually when no one is around. However a coworker is "scared" of me chanting because she thinks it's demonic. (She is a baptist) ... I also brought Prasadam Garlands for everyone and she turned them down. My boss is much worse, she has called my Lord Narashima necklace an S&M necklace, told me not to chant as much, and one time I brought small frames pictures of Gaura-Nitai, Srila Prabhupada and my Guru Dev and she made offensive remarks about them. What kind of bad Karma are they recovering? How can I ask forgiveness of the offenses? Are they going to suffer karmic reaction quickly for these offenses? I try now to keep everything very quite so they do not continue to blaspheme The Lord.
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You are very right in keeping everything quite, because one of the ten offences in chanting the holy name of the Lord is "instructing a non-believer in Glories of the Holy name"- now Prabhupada and the empowered could mercifully do that (he's satyavesh avatara) but we can easily fall down in our service and go back into one of the 8400,000 species.
You are a very sincere devotee who wants to chant, and KC is not anything like bad karma, its even more dangerous than that because it is transcendental. Krishna can tolerate blasphemy of himself(sisupala a 100 times) but never(NEVER) of his devotee. In the "The Nectarean Ocean of The Holy name by sacinandana swami, (Highly recomended for every Vaisnava,you've got to read it) it is mentioned that by committing offenses against the Holy name, we LOSE our taste in chanting ,performing spiritual activities. We are like a person with high fever who can not eat delicious food.
So don't let anyone commit that offense "to blaspheme devotees who have dedicated their lives for propagating the holy name of the Lord" because a vaisnava is supposed to be equally disposed and merciful to all living entities. It is said that whenever any kind of poisonous criticism of Guru And Gauranga takes place, A devotee should either stand up against or get out of the room from where it is happening, as even hearing such is an offense.
It isn't possible for you to speak against your boss, or get out of the room, so just don't give him an opportunity to commit an offense, or even yourself. I wouldn't advise bringing pictures of the Lord, but maybe you could save them on your phone and pay obeisances whenever Krsna desires. It is possible to ask for forgiveness for an offence by sincerely beseeching Krsna (repentence),and also to eradicate it ,:-is by trying to chant sincerely without any offense, -to eradicate that offence.(Its all in that wonderful book)and of course by crying for the mercy of Guru or prabhupada. Always try to remember Him, personally, i use my fingers to chant in a public place(no one realizes)- I use the three divisions of each finger of my right hand so 15, and I make 8 of those to complete one round(roughly 108) and keep its track on my left fingers and combined memory. Keep Krsna As your secret, as the wonderful example given previously of the married woman who never lets the world know about her lover, but yet appears to be doing her duties. An example to illustrate this more is in Caitanya Caritamrta, where once mistaking a pure vaisnava based on his outward dress and quasi materialstic ostentatiousness, a vainsava didn't pay proper respects to Him.(memory of exact details is failing me- would appreciate if devotees can help out) So, you can be in the highest ecstasies even when you may look outwardly another working man.
Dear devotee Hare Krishna. It may be difficult to understand at first but a devotee behaves differently with non devotees.
Like we live a double life.
Among devotees we display so much enthusiasm for devotion to Krishna and loudly chant.
But when we are with materialists and faithless people we act in such a way that they cannot see our love for Krishna.
If a devotee hears criticism of the object of his love that will give pain to their heart and we get some reaction to hearing such critical remarks also.
You cannot tolerate it.
So devotees conceal their love.
Hide your love away.
When you get a chance you can show it openly.
Chanting on the street with the saṇkīrtan party.
Discussing Krishna,s pastimes with your friends and worshiping the deity in privacy.
Then you can even cry, it's ok.
Prabhupada would describe it like a woman who has a secret lover.
She does all her duties perfectly all the while thinking oh when will I get to see my lover.
And no one ever suspects her. Hare Krishna.
Hare Krishna Prabhuji! Dandvat! PAMHO! AGTSP! Radhey! Radhey! Prabhuji why are you showing your love & devotion to non-devotees who are atheist. If you read Bhagwadgita and Bhagwatam, it is clearly mentioned in both that about 90% of population in kaliyug is sudra quality, it means d grade quality who do not believe in Lord Krishna at all, who believe in meat eating, drinking, gambling and having illicit sex, which all totally opposite of our shastras. Despite of thanking to Lord they make fun of Lord and his devotees and whenever a devotee like you or me or us try to explain the glory of Lord they straight away deny it and try to explain their own ill story which is not at all correct. Can you teach or preach to animals, i think your answer will be no. Now a days the mostly generation is living like animal in form of human body. So please prabhuji do not give any lecture to your non-devotees colleague better your keep your love hide from them and cheat them through various way to enhance your chanting and sadhna. Kind follow these steps to make better distance from your non-devotees colleague:
1) First of all do not show your bosses or colleague while you are chanting or better do not use your chanting pouch or beeds in your office, even do not use clicker. Computer excel sheet is ok to chant.
2) Do not glorify Lords name in front of them until you feel that you are not capable enough to defend or explain.
3) Do not put any photograph of Lord or our gurudev because rather then admiring it they will make fun of it will say you that this your office not home.
4) Let them make fun of the Lord but keep your love alive for the Lord and our gurudev.
5) In terms of Karmic reaction of thier sin, this is also depend on you. If you are a pure Vaishnav and do not consider yourself a body and far away from the fruits of your karma then your boss and colleague will not have any karmic reaction but if you are in progress of KC then may be they all will be punished for thier sin by the Lord or representatives.
Lord Krishna said he bears all humiliation of non-devotees but he can not bear the humiliation of his devotees and for the sake of devotees Lord Krishna can cross any limit in the universe. So i hope you would have got some clearity on your question.
In addition to what has been suggested, I would like to add that its better to do our sadhana in isolation till we become firmed up enough that others offences do not bother us. In the sense that both the incidents you mentioned are offences yes, but they are done by people who are ignorant about Krsna. Thats why the degree of offence is lesser than someone who knows about Krsna and still behaves in that manner.
Having said that, I think you are new to Krsna COnsciousness, therefore it is natural that we do two things - we try to tell people around us what a wonderful thing KC is and we externalise our sadhana. I would advise you to internalise your sadhana - first chant enough rounds and enough times that your sadhana is firmed up, you develop unshakeable faith. Then you can show external signs of being a devotee.
Practically speaking, you may not carry a clicker to work to ensure that your boss and co worker do not create hurdles for your devotion and job both. You can still chant in office - I do on excel. Its simple - open an excel sheet and chant the maha mantra. Every time you have chanted, simply type HK or anything else, innocous in one cell. LIke this, keep coming down, the rows are numbered and the coloums have alphabets. Once you have reached row no 108, go to the next coloumn and continue cahnting. This way, even if have to leave mid round, still you know the count. Most people do not peer into other person's screen. It is expected that if someone is busy on the computer/ laptop, then they are working. Use this technique, it works for me.
Do not keep any pics of deities or books in office. If you have become vegeterian, then carry your own food and eat alone, citing random health issues because of whihc doc has advised you home cooked food only. You know what you are eating - nobody bothers so much. If they offer you food, politely decline citing health issues again.
I hope these suggestions are practical and workable for you.
I am sure that they will suffer karmic reaction for their offenses. Whether it will happen quickly or later on is unknown. You can ask Lord Krishna to please forgive their offenses.
I am thinking it might be best if you do your chanting at home instead of work. Sadly the boss is still the boss and if you make the boss angry then you may get fired from your job.
Replies
Hare Krishna,
You are very right in keeping everything quite, because one of the ten offences in chanting the holy name of the Lord is "instructing a non-believer in Glories of the Holy name"- now Prabhupada and the empowered could mercifully do that (he's satyavesh avatara) but we can easily fall down in our service and go back into one of the 8400,000 species.
You are a very sincere devotee who wants to chant, and KC is not anything like bad karma, its even more dangerous than that because it is transcendental. Krishna can tolerate blasphemy of himself(sisupala a 100 times) but never(NEVER) of his devotee. In the "The Nectarean Ocean of The Holy name by sacinandana swami, (Highly recomended for every Vaisnava,you've got to read it) it is mentioned that by committing offenses against the Holy name, we LOSE our taste in chanting ,performing spiritual activities. We are like a person with high fever who can not eat delicious food.
So don't let anyone commit that offense "to blaspheme devotees who have dedicated their lives for propagating the holy name of the Lord" because a vaisnava is supposed to be equally disposed and merciful to all living entities. It is said that whenever any kind of poisonous criticism of Guru And Gauranga takes place, A devotee should either stand up against or get out of the room from where it is happening, as even hearing such is an offense.
It isn't possible for you to speak against your boss, or get out of the room, so just don't give him an opportunity to commit an offense, or even yourself. I wouldn't advise bringing pictures of the Lord, but maybe you could save them on your phone and pay obeisances whenever Krsna desires. It is possible to ask for forgiveness for an offence by sincerely beseeching Krsna (repentence),and also to eradicate it ,:-is by trying to chant sincerely without any offense, -to eradicate that offence.(Its all in that wonderful book)and of course by crying for the mercy of Guru or prabhupada. Always try to remember Him, personally, i use my fingers to chant in a public place(no one realizes)- I use the three divisions of each finger of my right hand so 15, and I make 8 of those to complete one round(roughly 108) and keep its track on my left fingers and combined memory. Keep Krsna As your secret, as the wonderful example given previously of the married woman who never lets the world know about her lover, but yet appears to be doing her duties. An example to illustrate this more is in Caitanya Caritamrta, where once mistaking a pure vaisnava based on his outward dress and quasi materialstic ostentatiousness, a vainsava didn't pay proper respects to Him.(memory of exact details is failing me- would appreciate if devotees can help out) So, you can be in the highest ecstasies even when you may look outwardly another working man.
Hare Krsna,
aspiring service,
yashvini
Like we live a double life.
Among devotees we display so much enthusiasm for devotion to Krishna and loudly chant.
But when we are with materialists and faithless people we act in such a way that they cannot see our love for Krishna.
If a devotee hears criticism of the object of his love that will give pain to their heart and we get some reaction to hearing such critical remarks also.
You cannot tolerate it.
So devotees conceal their love.
Hide your love away.
When you get a chance you can show it openly.
Chanting on the street with the saṇkīrtan party.
Discussing Krishna,s pastimes with your friends and worshiping the deity in privacy.
Then you can even cry, it's ok.
Prabhupada would describe it like a woman who has a secret lover.
She does all her duties perfectly all the while thinking oh when will I get to see my lover.
And no one ever suspects her. Hare Krishna.
Hare Krishna Prabhuji! Dandvat! PAMHO! AGTSP! Radhey! Radhey! Prabhuji why are you showing your love & devotion to non-devotees who are atheist. If you read Bhagwadgita and Bhagwatam, it is clearly mentioned in both that about 90% of population in kaliyug is sudra quality, it means d grade quality who do not believe in Lord Krishna at all, who believe in meat eating, drinking, gambling and having illicit sex, which all totally opposite of our shastras. Despite of thanking to Lord they make fun of Lord and his devotees and whenever a devotee like you or me or us try to explain the glory of Lord they straight away deny it and try to explain their own ill story which is not at all correct. Can you teach or preach to animals, i think your answer will be no. Now a days the mostly generation is living like animal in form of human body. So please prabhuji do not give any lecture to your non-devotees colleague better your keep your love hide from them and cheat them through various way to enhance your chanting and sadhna. Kind follow these steps to make better distance from your non-devotees colleague:
1) First of all do not show your bosses or colleague while you are chanting or better do not use your chanting pouch or beeds in your office, even do not use clicker. Computer excel sheet is ok to chant.
2) Do not glorify Lords name in front of them until you feel that you are not capable enough to defend or explain.
3) Do not put any photograph of Lord or our gurudev because rather then admiring it they will make fun of it will say you that this your office not home.
4) Let them make fun of the Lord but keep your love alive for the Lord and our gurudev.
5) In terms of Karmic reaction of thier sin, this is also depend on you. If you are a pure Vaishnav and do not consider yourself a body and far away from the fruits of your karma then your boss and colleague will not have any karmic reaction but if you are in progress of KC then may be they all will be punished for thier sin by the Lord or representatives.
Lord Krishna said he bears all humiliation of non-devotees but he can not bear the humiliation of his devotees and for the sake of devotees Lord Krishna can cross any limit in the universe. So i hope you would have got some clearity on your question.
Hare Krishna
your humble servant
Bhuwan Dutt Bawari
HK
Hare Krsna Prabhuji,
PAMHO.
In addition to what has been suggested, I would like to add that its better to do our sadhana in isolation till we become firmed up enough that others offences do not bother us. In the sense that both the incidents you mentioned are offences yes, but they are done by people who are ignorant about Krsna. Thats why the degree of offence is lesser than someone who knows about Krsna and still behaves in that manner.
Having said that, I think you are new to Krsna COnsciousness, therefore it is natural that we do two things - we try to tell people around us what a wonderful thing KC is and we externalise our sadhana. I would advise you to internalise your sadhana - first chant enough rounds and enough times that your sadhana is firmed up, you develop unshakeable faith. Then you can show external signs of being a devotee.
Practically speaking, you may not carry a clicker to work to ensure that your boss and co worker do not create hurdles for your devotion and job both. You can still chant in office - I do on excel. Its simple - open an excel sheet and chant the maha mantra. Every time you have chanted, simply type HK or anything else, innocous in one cell. LIke this, keep coming down, the rows are numbered and the coloums have alphabets. Once you have reached row no 108, go to the next coloumn and continue cahnting. This way, even if have to leave mid round, still you know the count. Most people do not peer into other person's screen. It is expected that if someone is busy on the computer/ laptop, then they are working. Use this technique, it works for me.
Do not keep any pics of deities or books in office. If you have become vegeterian, then carry your own food and eat alone, citing random health issues because of whihc doc has advised you home cooked food only. You know what you are eating - nobody bothers so much. If they offer you food, politely decline citing health issues again.
I hope these suggestions are practical and workable for you.
Haribol,
Your servant,
Rashmi
I am sure that they will suffer karmic reaction for their offenses. Whether it will happen quickly or later on is unknown. You can ask Lord Krishna to please forgive their offenses.
I am thinking it might be best if you do your chanting at home instead of work. Sadly the boss is still the boss and if you make the boss angry then you may get fired from your job.
Yes, better to keep little distance from such people till the time they become favorable.
Otherwise, we will always hear criticism towards Lord and His Devotees.
And always pray the Lord to give You proper association continuing Your chanting.
Your servant,