The inconsiderate can be as injurious as the incorrect
A doctor who prescribes incorrectly hurts the patient. But so does a doctor who prescribes inconsiderately, who doesn’t consider the patient’s case history and prescribes a contraindicative treatment.
We all are like patients, being afflicted by the disease of misdirected desires. Although we are eternal spiritual beings, we crave for temporary material things, thereby sentencing ourselves to repeated birth and death. The Bhagavad-gita’s message of spiritual love guides us to redirect our desires from worldly things to Krishna. When we share the Gita with others, we become like spiritual healers. While sharing the Gita, if we deviate from its pure and potent message, we will perpetuate people’s spiritual ignorance and material attachments. Knowing this, we carefully guard against speaking incorrectly.
However, we aren’t so careful to avoid speaking inconsiderately. We sometimes speak things, which, even if true, agitate people’s minds unnecessarily. Of course, outreach sometimes requires disturbing people by challenging their conceptions just as treatment sometimes requires subjecting them to surgery. But just as contraindicative treatments are excessively and unnecessarily distressing, so too are inconsiderate words.
Based on their socio-cultural background, some people may be super-sensitive about some issues. If we speak insensitively on those issues, they get so agitated as to become hostile to the Gita’s central message of spiritualizing one’s consciousness. Thus, their ignorance gets perpetuated by our inconsiderateness, just as it would have by our incorrectness.
The Bhagavad-gita (03.26) cautions us against agitating people’s minds, even when we are detached and knowledgeable, and they are attached and ignorant. The same verse urges us to expertly inspire people towards spiritual elevation, even if gradually.
When we strive to be both correct and considerate, we better represent Krishna’s wisdom and Krishna’s love. By thus appealing to our audience’s head and heart both, we ease their path to spiritual healing.
#HGChaitanyaCharan #gitadaily #KrishnaKatha#HareKrishna #ISKCON #ISKCONDesireTree #IDT#HareKrishna #Pooja #Spiritual #chant
A doctor who prescribes incorrectly hurts the patient. But so does a doctor who prescribes inconsiderately, who doesn’t consider the patient’s case history and prescribes a contraindicative treatment.
We all are like patients, being afflicted by the disease of misdirected desires. Although we are eternal spiritual beings, we crave for temporary material things, thereby sentencing ourselves to repeated birth and death. The Bhagavad-gita’s message of spiritual love guides us to redirect our desires from worldly things to Krishna. When we share the Gita with others, we become like spiritual healers. While sharing the Gita, if we deviate from its pure and potent message, we will perpetuate people’s spiritual ignorance and material attachments. Knowing this, we carefully guard against speaking incorrectly.
However, we aren’t so careful to avoid speaking inconsiderately. We sometimes speak things, which, even if true, agitate people’s minds unnecessarily. Of course, outreach sometimes requires disturbing people by challenging their conceptions just as treatment sometimes requires subjecting them to surgery. But just as contraindicative treatments are excessively and unnecessarily distressing, so too are inconsiderate words.
Based on their socio-cultural background, some people may be super-sensitive about some issues. If we speak insensitively on those issues, they get so agitated as to become hostile to the Gita’s central message of spiritualizing one’s consciousness. Thus, their ignorance gets perpetuated by our inconsiderateness, just as it would have by our incorrectness.
The Bhagavad-gita (03.26) cautions us against agitating people’s minds, even when we are detached and knowledgeable, and they are attached and ignorant. The same verse urges us to expertly inspire people towards spiritual elevation, even if gradually.
When we strive to be both correct and considerate, we better represent Krishna’s wisdom and Krishna’s love. By thus appealing to our audience’s head and heart both, we ease their path to spiritual healing.
#HGChaitanyaCharan #gitadaily #KrishnaKatha#HareKrishna #ISKCON #ISKCONDesireTree #IDT#HareKrishna #Pooja #Spiritual #chant
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