Saturday, November 9

(H H Kadamba Kanana Swami, 30th March 2012, Cape Town, South Africa) Lecture: SB 7.15.25

How are we going to convince people about Krishna?

I think that sometimes we make it difficult. We think that people will not be attracted to Krishna and that is not the fact. Krishna is all attractive. He really is attractive! So it’s not that:

‘How are we going to convince people about Krishna Consciousness? Should we maybe disguise it this way or that way?’

Apparently such a disguise is efficient since it seems to produce results. Yes we can talk to football players about football and to saxophone players about the sax, but whatever may inspire them, but the point is that with that we won’t capture them for very deep or for a long time because the mind is restless…The mind is going from here to there and everywhere constantly, and that is the material consciousness.

‘Bahu śākhā ananta ca,’ many branches everywhere, and that is the nature of the material consciousness. That while we are enjoying the one thing, we are still looking at another thing! The example of the boy with his girlfriend on the hand and they are walking in the street and both are looking at others. Although they are walking hand in hand, they are looking at others! So still not satisfied, ‘bahu śākhā ananta ca. But we hold on. We need to have something good:

‘Okay, I’ll keep that. But still what else is there?’

The radar is just constantly checking:

‘What else is there? Okay that is good. I’ll have that also – keep it. But I’m still watching, is there more?’

And therefore, the things that we are having are not of a deep experience of the objects of enjoyment, and that is the material relationship. Therefore, if we try to impress people with a material presentation, we may capture their mind for a little while, and then they’ll go somewhere else, because that is what the normal approach is to material presentation.

Actually we can try to speak about Krishna, since there is nothing wrong in speaking about Krishna, to anyone and everyone in anytime, place or circumstance. We can speak just about Krishna, and therefore there is no need to speak about yoga, meditation or rubbish, since we only need to speak about Krishna so the only question is how do we speak about Krishna? That is the art.

Well, there is certainly something we can find in Krishna. There are logical things that can be said, for instance we can say spiritual reality, instead of saying God or religious – since those are words that maybe people are allergic to, since they have been rammed down the throat. So there are allergies and that is a fact, but one can explain that everything is spiritual in origin. Therefore by looking at this world we can also understand more about dimensions that we cannot see. That we can understand that there is a personality here and there is a personality there, and they are on a spiritual platform. There is a personality as well as energy. So this point has been made by Srila Prabhupada again and again that, ‘There is personality in the absolute truth,’ because there is personality here so how can there not be a personality there? And there is a personality in us!

So spiritual life or the spiritual platform is not a process of self-denial. If it would be a process of self-denial, then it would be something that we have doubts about, but spiritual self-realization is a platform where you use all of your potential that you have and it is as simple as that. And that is there in the personality. Yes we have a personality, and it is not that we give up our personality, but we develop it. But also seeing that we are connected to all of the other energies in this world, since it is all part of the same thing, ‘acintya-bhedābheda tatam.’ Simultaneously one and many and that is ultimately what we have to present. The words that we use to say can be:

‘Spiritual, self realization.’

Or you could say:

‘God, or faith.’

You can use such words but if you do then some people will immediately call out:

‘Hallelujah, hallelujah, here we go again!’

So whatever it maybe, strategies in presentation can be there but if substance is not there then what is the meaning? Because it is about the Personality, and the Personality of Krishna is attractive!

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