Reflections on Preaching

Sri Arjuna Das, New Biharvan Dham

Patience
Kindness
Determination
Courage

     The Goal of Life is to remember our Relationship with Krishna. 

     A preacher must be kind, gentle, and patient in his dealings.
 
     Kindness means we look deep in everyone’s heart and see, “Here is a living entity desperately longing for love, and I am going to find a way to give him this love.”

     Gentle means we treat everyone in such a way that we genuinely gain appreciation for, and admire, every small service this jiva offers to Krishna. “Oh, you pronounce Krishna’s names so nicely,” “I love hearing you say Hare Krishna,” “The way you clean Krishna’s floor touches my heart.” Remember, genuiness is essential in all relationships. Genuiness comes when we sincerely chant Hare Krishna. We will see the beauty of everyone. Just like Krishna. Krishna sees the hidden beauty within all of us, and He wants us to come home. 

    If we are sincere devotees we will become like Bumblebees, finding the love, gold, and honey in everyone, and bringing it into vision. We all want honey and love, let’s be Bumblebees. 

    Krishna Consciousness is simple, we all naturally love Krishna, and He loves us. Sooo much. Krishna Consciousness is simply awakening our natural love for Him, and serving Him, by chanting His Holy Names. We chant “Hare Krishna” once and He comes running towards us. So Krishna Consciousness is sweet and simple, and the preacher must be gentle kind and loving. Gentleness and Kindness are the two hands we use to nourish other’s spiritual creepers. 

     Determination and Courage. These are the two qualities the preacher must apply to himself. The preacher is effective because he makes himself a channel for others to shower them with a minute fraction of Krishna’s love and kindness for us. For himself, the preacher quietly holds himself to the highest standard, to gain his shakti. Determination means chanting our rounds when we are tired, preaching in the cold, and walking on sankirtana when our feet hurt. We must be determined to give love. And we find love, in the pages of the Bhagavatam, Bhagavad Gita, and Krishna book. 

    Courage, comes when we are scared, and goes hand in hand with determination. If we are scared to oppose someone, but are determined to spread love, we have the opportunity to be courageous. If we see someone fishing, and Supersoul tells us to tell them to stop, courage means we act, in spite of the knot in our stomach. And we preach to them, about kindness to the weaker entities. Even if they do not listen, we will have planted the seed of love. 

     Hare Krishna. 
8:53 AM, December 11th, 2015. 

Source: http://m.dandavats.com/?p=18440

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