Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna!
Dear Bhakta Igor, please accept my humble obeisances.
We can also reverse the question and ask ourselves: Do we need to be selective and be �good� to some people and to others not? Do we judge a person from the point of view of our eternal constitutional position or from our material conditioned position? In the material conditioning people fight like cats and dogs over the most insignificant things, they are all angry by default because they can never satisfy themselves enough. Their sense gratification is like fuel on the fire and they are entangled in the blazing fire of so much pain. In most cases their anger is a deep frustration and a cry for help: please take my pain away and show me a way that I can be fully satisfied! Are we indifferent to their cry? Or are we full of compassion towards them? Is our answer towards them from the spiritual point of view or the material one?
Our answer is closely related to our own spiritual development. When we would see the Lord in everything, in every living being, when we see the actual position of everyone of being an eternal happy servant of the Lord, how can we act differently than out of full respect and compassion? Just our very divine vision itself forbids us to be �not good� to them and we bow down before the Lord in them. A practical example: A friend of mine made some speculative remarks about devotional service. He more or less fantasized about how the Lord should act towards him. I felt compelled to raise my finger and say �no, no, that�s not the way you can think.� He in turn became really mad at me and raised his voice and said that he could say and think whatever he wanted. His said that his vision was as much worth as mine and he didn�t like my waiving with the finger and �teaching� him differently. I picked up my beadbag and started chanting, not provocative but silently within myself to seek refuge in the Lord because the last thing I wanted was to get mad also. After about twenty minutes my friend fell flat on the floor and asked for my forgiveness�he said: �You have convinced me. I was angry at you and your only answer was love. I am so sorry for my behavior.� I told him: �Actually it was my fault because I should never have waived my finger and act so teacher-like, I should have been more subtle in my reply.� Anyway, we hugged and we chanted and song kirtan for hours together.
It was tempting to reply with discussion, arguments and proud knowledge. It is so easy to �bite� back, especially when I think I am right. It is the art of devotional service to be humble and to elevate the environment. When we can somehow become less than others, �get under them�, we can carry them out on our shoulders. When we try to stay on top both we will sink deeper. Humbleness is such an art and especially challenging when others are not appreciative and even criticize our small devotional activities. But when we become unharmonious with them what result can we expect? Do we please the Lord by becoming indifferent towards them?
There is an exception when it means that our own Bhakti comes in danger. It all depends on our own devotional strength like we were discussing in the other treat about mayavadis. Their teachings can be very dangerous for our own bhajana and drag us down from the path of Bhakti.
The answer to the war between the suras and asuras is given by Lord Krishna in another Yuga. He came to destroy all the demons. But in this Yuga the most merciful Lord Nityananda and Lord Gauranga came to deliver all living entities and They don�t make any distinction between good and bad. They simply came to deliver all. When we want to be a part of Lord Gauranga�s sankirtana movement we have the obligation to learn to see everybody in his or her constitutional position so we can act upon our divine vision and �elevate our environment�.
Thanks Igor for your nice question.
Your servant,
Hadai Nityananda dasa
Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna!
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