In my previous post I spoke about the broad principal of preaching that somehow or other one should try to connect a soul to Krishna, all other considerations or rules are secondary. Sometimes, we may speak bluntly or sometimes we flatter. Taken from an excerpt from HH Satsvarupa Goswami's book 'With Srila Prabhupada 1966-69; Srila Prabhupada writes that We can induce someone to take to Krsna consciousness, and that may sometimes include flattering that person's false ego.
Once OBL Kapoor (godbrother of Prabhupada) was interviewed and he recalled his memory of Prabhupada when Prabhupada was still a householder. Prabhupada said 'I know the method to spread the movement in English speaking countries' and he continued by reciting - trnad api sunicena taror iva sahisnuna, amanina manadena kirtaniya sada hari.
So while Rupa Goswami's instruction of somehow or other one must induce one to Krishna, the method according to Prabhupada is to take a humble position just as Lord Nityananda did in His earthly lila. Below is an excerpt from Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Takur that capture this idea;
A chanter of Hari-kirtana is necessarily the uncompromising enemy of worldliness and hypocrisy. It is his constant function to dispel all misconceptions by preaching the truth in its most unambiguous form, without any consideration of person, place, or time. The form to be adopted is that which is least likely to be misunderstood. It is his bounden duty to clearly and frankly oppose any person who tries to deceive and harm himself and others by misrepresenting the truth, whether due to malice or genuine misunderstanding.
This will be possible if the chanter of kirtana is always prepared to submit to being trodden upon by thoughtless people, if such discomfort will enable him to benefit his persecutors by chanting of the truth in the most unambiguous manner.
If he is unwilling or afraid of considerations of self-respect or personal discomfort to chant kirtana under all circumstances, he is unfit to be a preacher of the absolute truth.
Humility implies perfect submission to the truth and no sympathy for untruth. Those who entertain any partiality for untruth are unfit to chant Hari-kirtana. Any clinging to untruth is opposed to the principle of humility born of absolute submission to the truth.
-Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur “Harmonist 26.249-50 (Apr 1929)”
Hare Krishna
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