How can male preachers shine in Preaching like Women Preachers?
A male devotee asked like this (I have hidden name):
Hare Krishna Prabhu ji, I am attached to local Iskcon leaders of my town from the last 1 year continuously but there is no particular temple in the town yet but some people are attached with this movement and trying to establish a permanent temple in the town.
They have created a religious group on Whatsapp for attaching the more people. And on that group, there is a female leader who’s been preaching for a long time, she’s been discussing prabhupad’s books. I noticed one thing, when she starts discussion, everyone in the group takes part in book discussion but when any male devotee starts discussion, nobody reply or follow him. Is that right ? I stopped her openly in that group telling the same situation. But everyone involved in the group has criticized me by saying only your thinking is wrong else is fine. They told me that are they characterless ?
Are they right or they are using some simple methods to attach the crowd or build their temple in the town ?
Another one: Nowadays, people are using their own methods in conducting their spiritual life like i have seen most people are doing covering the krishna dieties with blanket by saying krishna also suffering from cold etc. Some people are making dress like santa clause, some are attaching national flag to cover, some are heavy different kinds of clothes, so many things according to their own beliefs. Is this right ? Please also give me answer to my previous question.
Hare Krishna
REPLY:
I understand that you have asked out of helplessness.
It is NATURAL that the women preachers may have more male fans. Because this entire world is running because of male-female attraction only.
I have seen in our temple that women preachers get good donations for the temples easily by preaching to their neighbors, friends, etc. They are able to more instantly surrender to Krishna than the male devotees.
(How to preach Krishna Consciousness to the tough people? READ HERE!)
In the temples also, the crowd of women outnumbered men remarkably.
Do you know most of the girl children will be more affectionate with their father and male children will be much affectionate with mother?
Why?
Because, positive-positive, negative-negative attractions is less effective. Only the attraction between opposite charges is natural.
By telling this, I do not say that the affinity is not advised between father and daughter (or) mother and son. Because, it is natural to have more affinity with the persons of opposite gender.
Such affinities are not wrong attractions, but, just a natural affinity towards the persons of opposite gender.
(How Krishna reacts to one’s preaching of false concepts and manthras? READ HERE!)
Similarly, when women preachers preach, males also follow with much interest. This need not be a wrong following. It is natural. The women are able to speak in such a way that it attracts the audience. Even in the teaching jobs, women teachers usually do better than the male teachers because they may not waste their available time for smoking, grouping with other teachers, etc.
When the women were not allowed to go to jobs, the men enjoyed all the merits and honors in jobs. But, when the women too started to go for jobs, the women have started to gain more appreciations from the authorities.
So, we can not prevent such domination hereafter. Srila Prabhupada has said that women should take care of home administration and men should take care of earning and protecting his family. However, we have come to the stage in which both men and women are forced to work together. Reversing this trend is not possible in kali yuga after this much of advancement.
So, hereafter, males have to learn to co-ordinate with women and get the works done. If they speak against it, they will be sidelined in the society.
(Why my Vedic Brahmana family doesn’t accept ISKCON & its Preaching? READ HERE!)
Of course, too much of interaction between men and women devotees is not advised in any temple or forum. Because, we can not expect all men and women to be well disciplined and there may be some chances for offensive acts with the members of opposite gender. A very small % of people may involve in such acts though majority will be good.
So, it is always better to control unwanted discussions between men and women inside the temples. Only the spiritual patients are coming to the temples, not the perfect people. So, too much of interactions between these spiritual patients can lead to mistakes.
No one involves in offences with a plan. It happens because of situations. So, we should not give opportunity for such a situation to arise.
That’s all. This is my general view.
In your case, more followers followed that mataji. I agree that AMONG CASUAL FANS, if the same post is posted by a man and woman, naturally, the woman will get more LIKES. Even if a girl posts as ‘Hai’, she gets hundreds of Hai’s. But, these quorum is not the intelligent group, but emotional group. And, even in devotional life, these are true only in the case of a forum in which many are casual devotees who have not yet advanced in Vaishnava etiquettes. If the followers are serious and sincere, they will hear from any bonafide preacher who preaches properly.
Take our site. It has been credited with mostly the fans who are thirsty for quality contents. I can say that most of them are the serious seekers of knowledge. If I post only pictures, they do not like it and the support is poor. If I post formal contents from other books, they do not like it more. They want only unique and exclusive articles and replies from me.
(How to preach about Krishna to those who do not show interest to hear? READ HERE!)
They are following this site JUST FOR ITS QUALITY CONTENTS and CONSISTENCY maintained for decades. Not for whether the writer is male or female. Even a 16-17 years old girl fan of this page expects serious and advanced concepts. I am a male who has not even posted my photo and have not met the fans directly as I have no time to treat them well directly and also I do not like to expose myself and get honors when my guru is alive because without our Guru’s connection, a devotee can’t be successful in preaching about Krishna. It is the verdict of the scriptures that a disciple should not long for fame when his guru is still in this planet.
So, understanding my honest explanation for this background service, the devotees support my writings even without seeing me. And, I am not a teen boy, but, a responsible middle aged, middle class devotee who likes to be in the last bench though Krishna is doing wonders using me as an instrument.
Moreover, I am very strict also in maintaining discipline in the site and FB page and I never discuss unwanted talks with the fans and my FB chat room is always turned off. Still, this site has millions of such wonderful followings.
Take Srila Prabhupada. He created a big community for the whole world to live under the shelter of Krishna. But, he did it after his age of 70.
If our intention is good and selfless, we will get genuine supporters for our works. No doubt in it. If we get pride for that, Krishna will take them back with no time.
(How to decide whether the advices of Co-devotees Genuine or not? READ HERE!)
So, my point is that this Site and FB page is the best example for the wonderful male as well as female fans who EQUALLY like the writings from a male. No male devotee of our page jumps to any other page promoted by women devotees just because they are women. They follow this media just for the contents.
In your experience, if there were unwanted and excessive exchange of comments between her and group members, you can ban her. But, when there were no such excessive acts, if you remove her just because she has more followings than men, the group members may get fumed and may take it otherwise. They may take it as an act out of your jealousy.
So, Let the past is past. Forget it and hereafter do not bother about the gender of the members. Just give them good contents. If your contents are good, the serious and sincere devotees will come to your media and casual persons will automatically leave. If Krishna decides to uplift a person, no one can stop that. Believe that.
You have also asked about whether women preachers can preach. They are also athmas and they too have right to preach. They too can preach to their own circles like friends, relatives, etc.
(READ, FOLLOW AND PREACH – STORY! READ HERE!)
The only safeguards I suggest for the women preachers is:
(1) The women devotees and men devotees should not mingle beyond a limit in their preaching activities and a male and female should never remain together in a place. The male and female devotees should behave in such a way that the outside world do not find faults in their activities.
(2) Men should have a male leader and women should be guided through a woman leader or senior woman devotee. This can increase transparency and openness in the functions of women.
(3) Women preachers/devotees should return home before 8 PM and they should take part in all the household works for their parents. They should not go to temples and preaching or tours abandoning the duties they have for parents and other family members.
(4) Girl devotees should go to tours taking their parents/ guardian also.
(5) Women devotees should not meet anyone privately to distribute books or to collect donations and they should always act in public places. This is to protect their security.
Thus, women preachers can preach following above security safeguards. If they follow such safety measures, they too can preach about Lord. Nothing wrong.
(PRACTICE BEFORE PREACHING – STORY! READ HERE!)
Next, about covering Krishna deities for cold and allowing Krishna to sleep, etc. Of course, it may not be necessary as traditionally in ancient temples, the deities are kept in a small room only even without fan and bright lightings. However, this is done out of love on Krishna. We treat Krishna as our PRIME family member. So, we treat so. Such acts will increase our love for Krishna. Even in “SRI” Vaishnava temples, they allow the lord to sleep during the night and they stop darshan by 9 pm. Even in Tirumala Tirupati, Lord Balaji is given some rest during night. Of course His rest is coming down because thousands of devotees are thronging the temple every day and the management is struggling to manage the crowd. The devotees do not like to allow Lord Balaji to take rest. They expect that Balaji should remain always blessing them. So, the temple authorities also has allowed Balaji to spare more time for the people. Everything is out of love. Nothing is wrong in such things.
In Tirumala, the devotees did not allow to fix golden plates inside the Garba Graha of the temple so as to protect the originality of the temple. So, the decorations should have a limit. That is why, the spiritual vibrations are more in Tirumala Tirupati because they are strictly following the rules recommended by the scriptures.
Decorating the deities of gods with unholy dress and make ups can be avoided. In northern India, Lord Ganesh ji is dressed with pants, shirts, laptop, bike, car, etc. Though this is done out of love, we get more material feeling on seeing such dressings. Good to follow our traditional dress Codes to Krishna or any other deity.
Hope you are clear now about how can male preachers shine in Preaching like Women Preachers.
(10 IMPORTANT TIPS TO PREACH ABOUT KRISHNA PROPERLY! READ HERE!)