Is attacking an attacking devotee leads to Vaishnava Offense?
A male Student devotee (Name hidden) asked like this:
Hare Krishna prabhuji. I am a student studying in class 11 preparing for JEE. I came to KC in dec 2019 or January 2020 as in my school few devotees came to preach. I have a friend named ……. he is slightly (not regularly) involved in kc. Sometimes he eats meat also means not following regulative principles. One day he twisted my hand. so I also become violent. So if there will be vaishnava apradh. Please answer.
REPLY:
I appreciate your efforts to be offense-free in this young age of the age 16.
Though one chants occasionally, he too is a Vaishnava.
Of course, there are some levels/grades of Vaishnavas. But, the boy you mentioned is a starting level Vaishnava.
I do not find any signs of matured devotees in the actions of that boy and you.
First, I like to clarify that both of you are wrong.
(Repenting For Vaishnava Aparatha (Offense) Properly! A Case Study! READ HERE!)
A matured devotee will instantly forgive and forget.
He has attacked you for a silly reason or with no reason. This shows that he has behaved like a non devotee.
Yes, attacking an attacking devotee leads to Vaishnava Offense!
You have been easily affected by anger and ego.
This shows that you still have the domination of Rajo guna.
See, if a devotee attacks you, you should bear that and leave him without retaliating.
You may gently give him good advice to avoid such acts.
If he does not hear, just leave him.
Is forgiving an attacker cowardness?
Not at all.
I speak based on the karma laws created by the Lord Krishna Himself.
Do you know an important fact?
If one retaliates, he is physically strong that adds karma.
If one forgives, he is spiritually strong that removes his karma.
Read carefully again:
Yes. When a person verbally or physically attacks us, he adds negative karma.
When we are attacked by him, we lose part of our negative karma.
So, he has done only good for us.
(Dealing with a rude devotee without Vaishnava offense -Best Tips! READ HERE!)
If we just leave him, he is going to face the reactions of his karma of attacking us.
What will happen if we attack him back?
When he attacked us we lost part of our negative karma; When we attack him again, we too add negative karma of attacking a person.
Here, We may have genuine reason to attack him that he attacked us first.
He would have added negative karma for attacking us.
We too add negative karma for attacking him.
Both add karma of attacking a person.
So, both he and we add negative karma.
(Why should the devotees forgive though someone insults them? READ HERE!)
Then, what to do to avoid adding karma?
Just leave him if he attacks you. Escape from there and inform the police. Go legally.
If you retaliate physically, you add negative karma. Yes, attacking an attacking devotee leads to Vaishnava Offense! Because we too commit offense like him.
But, if you leave him un-attacked back, karma network will act in our place and punish him.
He will lose his goodness.
But, We will not add new negative karma.
We will make karma network act for us.
This is the big benefit of not retaliating a person who attacked us.
When a Vaishnava insults us, we need not insult him back.
Just say HARE KRISHNA and leave the place.
(Is a Vaishnava’s pardon for Vaishnava Aparatha approved by Krishna? READ HERE!)
If he realizes his offense later and asks for your forgiveness, forgive him without denying.
If you insult him back, it is an offense on your part.
Though he has insulted you, he is still a Vaishnava, ie, erring Vaishnava.
We should give him chance to realize and reform.
Every person may commit mistakes at some circumstances in his life time.
So, just because a Vaishnava commits mistake once, we should not treat him in the same way.
He has committed an offense.
Let him realize and come to us for getting our pardon.
Let us concentrate in our more important & productive works.
This is the clear & safe advice for your offense-free devotional life.
Hope you are clear about attacking a devotee who physically attack us.
(How to avoid committing Vaishnava Aparatha repeatedly? READ HERE!)