Preaching with patience and detachment

Amogha gave Justin a couple of Back to Godhead magazines and walked with him to his car. Justin expressed his mind -- he had found Prabhupada's arguments thought-provoking and convincing -- especially those concerning the connection between contemporary problems and the bodily concept of life. As he was leaving he turned to Amogha and smiled. "Now I have to go back to my fourth-class life." Amogha related this to Srila Prabhupada, who was happy to hear the news. "This means he has understood," Prabhupada said. "He is better than so many clergies."

The quote above is taken from a conversation between Prabhupada and Justin. It was to a certain degree long winded going back and forth. Finally Justin had to leave Prabhupada’s association. The quote above is during his exit talking to Prabhupada’s disciple Amogha.

If you notice at the end, although Justin acknowledged everything Prabhupada said, still he indicates going back to “fourth class life”. So did Prabhupada’s preaching succeed or fail because if Justin went back to fourth class life then did his preaching make any lifestyle difference? Prabhupada expresses happiness that Justin intellectually understood the subject in comparison to numerous clergies who cannot even understand the basics.

So Srila Prabhupada sowed the seed of spiritual knowledge. The hope is this seed will fully fructify into love of God, in time. However, at the current instant, Prabhupada was satisfied with the seed. This shows his patience and detachment from fruits despite his laborious efforts.

We should also aspire to follow in Prabhupada's footsteps. We may preach to so many people with all our heart and mind but no one may take up Krishna consciousness, some may appreciate the philosophy and some may not care…regardless of the result we should be detached from the fruits of our labor. This detachment can come within us only if we fully understand that Krishna is the Supreme controller (and not I) and ultimately He is the one who inspires  people (from within) to be Krishna Conscious.

Hare Krishna