7: Preaching
“Preaching is like the head of our Krishna Consciousness Society—if the head is removed, the whole body dies.” (Srila Prabhupada letter, 3 December 1971)
Missionary work is a very important aspect of the Krishna consciousness movement.
Following the rules and regulations of Krishna conscious practices gives us the purity, the force, the strength to preach. Now we will look at the process of giving it to others, what preaching really means, what is the philosophy behind it, and how it should be performed.
Philosophy behind preaching
In today’s culture, preaching is often looked down upon with the attitude: "You can believe what you like for yourself, but you shouldn’t try to push your beliefs onto someone else".
Preaching is sometimes viewed as foolish, uncultured, or rude. Of course all organisations — spiritual or not — advertise their goods or services.
Devotees need to have a deeper understanding of the rationale behind preaching, why preaching is so important, and what the proper attitudes towards preaching are.
One can chant the holy names alone or congregationally, but in this age, chanting congregationally in the association of devotees is more recommended.
Sankirtana: San = together/congregational; kirtana = chanting.
- Sankirtana includes preaching because without inviting people to take part there is no question of congregational chanting.
- Lord Caitanya’s mission was to spread congregational chanting of the holy names all over the world.
- Followers of Lord Caitanya and Srila Prabhupada, follow their example of spreading the sankirtana movement.
- The purpose of the material world is two-fold
- To give the living entity a chance to fulfill his material desires and
- to reform the living beings so they can return to the spiritual world.
- The great desire of the Lord is that all the lost souls come back and be happy with Him. He descends to the material world Himself, sends His representatives, and establishes the religious scriptures in order to show the fallen souls the way back to Godhead.
- The devotee who serves the Lord by bringing living entities closer to Him and connecting them with Him is very dear to the Lord. Such devotees please Krishna the most (There is no servant inthis world more dear to Me than he, nor will there ever be one more dear. Bhagavad-gita 18.69). Therefore one gets extra mercy from Krishna. The more you give, the more you get.
- Spreading Krishna consciousness is real welfare work. People are wasting their lives suffering in the material world, but just by hearing the holy name or taking a little prasadam, they become connected to Krishna and the pathway back to Him.
In summary, preaching is one of the best activities for one’s own spiritual advancement, it is beneficial for others, and it is greatly pleasing to Krishna.
The principles and policies of preaching
What do people think of missionaries and preaching? For many, these words conjure up negative images of self-righteous, moralising evangelists preaching fire and brimstone and doomsday. Or perhaps newly converted believers who are naïve, dogmatic, pigheaded, smug, or condescending. Whatever the case, in today’s world more than ever, preaching (try: "Giving others the opportunity to receive transcendental knowledge," or "explaining spiritual wisdom," or "passing on information about spiritual life".) is an extremely subtle art.
Preaching situations
Consider the situations listed below by asking these three questions for each one:
- How might the person feel or react?
- Would this assist them in accepting Krishna consciousness?
- What principles or policies can be drawn from this?
- The devotee finds out about the person’s beliefs or convictions (religious, scientific, or general) and forcibly argues against them to show that they are inferior to the Krishna conscious understanding.
- The devotee finds out about the person’s beliefs or convictions (religious, scientific, or general) and finds interesting parallels between them and the Krishna conscious understanding.
- The devotee uses the very strong arguments and philosophy of Krishna consciousness to show how he has better knowledge, arguments, and intelligence.
- The devotee first establishes a friendly relationship with the person and makes him feel comfortable and at ease. They chat in the beginning about all kinds of ordinary things.
- The devotee makes light of the individual’s views and speaks as if he is superior and knows everything better.
- The devotee deals with each individual according to his specific case. He finds out why the person has come to the temple and what it is about Krishna consciousness that interests him. He then fans the spark of interest.
- The devotee holds an unbroken (unbreakable?) monologue with the individual for 45 minutes.
- The devotee mainly presents these points: no illicit sex, must surrender to Krishna, everyone is so fallen in maya and rotten, understand the Absolute Truth or you have to suffer in hell.