How to preach Krishna Consciousness to those who argue?
“A woman devotee” asked like this:
“Hare Krishna ..dandavats… I have a question prabhu. How to deal with egoistic people to help them progress in krishna consciousness? Thanks! PAMHO. Haribol !”
REPLY:
Yes, many people are like that. It may be little difficult to preach Krishna Consciousness to the tough people. Such people are living only because of the strength given by their ego. Let me share my experience in preaching to them and what I would do.
(1) If you go and start to speak to them, “Hare Krishna Prabhu, Please read this Bhagavad Gita As It Is that explains Gita as said by Krishna without any changes.”, they will immediately reply: “Oh, Bhagavad Gita? I know that. I have in my home”.
(How to preach about Krishna to those who do not show interest to hear? READ HERE!)
They will be having the book by some mayavadic authors without reading since buying it. To such people, we should not speak of any concepts. We should just tell them: “Prabhu/ mataji, Please visit the ISKCON temple every Sunday afternoon. You will have very good lectures, kirtans and delicious free prasadam.” And, you can also show them the small books of Srila Prabhupada as they would not have read them before.
(2) Another case will be cost conscious. They will say: “Wow… 200 Rs? Sorry, I have no money.” To them, you can give two choices: “ (i) Prabhu, give me your house address. I will bring this home tomorrow; (ii) Prabhu, or, read these small books that cost just Rs.20. You will definitely enjoy reading. Just read as a trial. You yourself will ask another one.”
(3) There are some other people who have plenty of money, but, do not have patience to hear what we speak to them. We should not spend more time to such busy people. Instead, we should just give him any of Srila Prabhupada’s Books, particularly Bhagavad Gita As It Is or Krishna and get money. They will not bother to spend Rs.200 for a book.
(How Krishna reacts to one’s preaching of false concepts and manthras? READ HERE!)
(4) There are another kind of people who are thinking ISKCON is creating sanyasis. They will immediately say: “Oh, ISKCON? Sorry, I am in family and I will read in my old age. Not now.”.
We should just tell them: “Sir, Bhagavad Gita is to follow. Krishna never said to go away from family as sanyasi. He in fact preached this to Arjuna who is a family man. So, it is wrong that Bhagavad Gita will make you a sanyasi. It made Arjuna to perform his duty of fighting war. Just have one copy. Read whenever you are free. Or, atleast read this small and wonderful book. You will like this.”
(5) There are another sect of people. They will ask: “Will your Krishna make me rich if I come to ISKCON? Will Krishna give a good husband to my daughter?”
To such people, we have to answer positively: “Yes, Krishna fulfils all the needs of His devotees. In fact, He only is feeding to even atheists. So, He will take care of the needs of His devotees also. Please come to temple.”
(10 IMPORTANT TIPS TO PREACH ABOUT KRISHNA PROPERLY! READ HERE!)
Thus, there will be variety of people who hesitate to come to the fold of Krishna Consciousness for many reasons. Srila Prabhupada has said that one need not speak long to the people and they just need to distribute any of his book and return that will definitely work to change them.
So, instead of wasting long time with such people with some ego, just concentrate in distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books. Though not today, they will read it one day and get interest to visit the temple near to them.
So, book distribution is very important and sufficient. We need not speak volumes.
Srila Prabhupada’s Books are like weapons. They are able to attack the target perfectly. So, to preach Krishna Consciousness to those who argue, just give them the books of Srila Prabhupada.
I too came to Krishna Consciousness after reading Bhagavad Gita As It Is and his small books. Most of the devotees are also like that.
(How to preach about Krishna to those who do not show interest to hear? READ HERE!)