What to do when other devotees mislead others? Where is the line between a proper reaction and offenses?
In many circumstances, devotees who are respected by others may adopt strange political views and do things that may give a bad example, or even cause harm to others. What to do in these situations?
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We learn about the dangers of Vaishnava aparadha. Descriptions of its dangerous aspects are spread all over the scriptures. It’s simple enough to understand this principle and apply it in the case of devotees who are acting exemplarily, but we see that in many circumstances, devotees who are respected by others may adopt strange political views and do things that may give a bad example, or even cause harm to others.
This includes more prosaic situations, like devotees being caught breaking some of the principles, or repeating conspiracy theories, and this progresses to more serious situations like devotees actively propagating misconceptions that can mislead others. Nowadays, there is a philosophy based on a misinterpretation of principles and instructions related to Varnāśrama and Vedic culture that is propagated by many, just to mention an example.
There may even be more serious cases, like devotees who speak in favor of wars and encourage others to go to the front and “perform their duty”, which can lead to death and injury of the ones who subscribe to it. Sometimes, devotees in positions of leadership may subscribe to such patriotism and, in this way, mislead their followers. This is a problem that devotees in Russia are currently having to deal with, for example.
In such cases, we may feel the need to protest, be it because we disagree with such views or because we feel the need to protect others from being misled by such dangerous philosophies. However, it’s very easy to get carried away and just start a quarrel that leads to a festival of personal insults without any positive outcome. We may also choose not to act on it but keep hatred against the devotee in question inside our minds, which is also not positive.
How can we react in a positive way in such situations, and without committing aparadha to other devotees?
One of the main points is to be able to see the difference between the idea being propagated and the devotee who is propagating it. That’s what Christ speaks about when he says, “Hate the sin, not the sinner”.
We all understand that we are not the body or the mind. Conspiracy theories and all kinds of nonsense come from the material mind or intelligence, not from the pure soul. Therefore, when we speak about a certain devotee, we should understand that the devotee is the pure soul, and not the body, mind, or intelligence that covers it.
Every soul is an eternal servant of Krsna and, by definition, is always pure. The problem is that the soul identifies with a certain body that acts under the three modes of nature. As a result, the body may say and do much nonsense, but we should understand that these actions are not exactly done by the soul but by the body. As long as one is not a pure devotee, there will always be a mixture of devotional acts performed by the awakening soul and material activities performed by the body, mind, and intelligence. A devotee may thus be sometimes very devotional and sometimes extremely foolish, depending on what is more active at the moment.
It’s said in the scriptures that a pure devotee should not be judged by defects in his body. The reason is that although a pure devotee may have an ugly or lame body, he does not identify with such a body. The pure devotee is not ugly or lame; these are just characteristics of the body. Such characteristics don’t have anything to do with the soul. Similarly, a pure devotee will go to the toilet, and so on. Again, these are all manifestations of the imperfections of the body. It doesn’t have anything to do with the eternal qualities of the soul.
This same distinction between the body and the soul actually applies to everyone. A pure devotee is not different in essence from any conditioned soul. Both are eternal servants of Krsna and are identical in quality. The only difference is that the conditioned soul identifies with the body, while the pure devotee identifies with his eternal position in the spiritual world.
Most of us are between the two extremes. We are not complete materialists, but we are also not pure devotees yet. Not only do we have a material body, but we are still under the influence of the three modes of nature, at least partially. Therefore, there are situations where we act like a soul, serving Krsna and chanting the holy names, and situations where we act like a body, acting under the three modes of nature, doing and speaking so much nonsense.
If we can practice seeing this difference between the pure soul and the body acting under the three modes, we can approach such situations in a much more productive way. Instead of blaming the devotee for what is being done, we will blame the illusion and the influence of the three material modes that influence the body to act in such ways. When we are able to do that, our attitude changes, because we see that the devotee who is misled in such a way is also a victim himself. Armed with such a vision, we can act in a more productive way, finding ways to deal with the situation without having to resort to ad hominem attacks. Because we will be able to deal in a more compassionate and rational way, we will also have much better chances of creating some positive change.
This is not just some kind of psychological exercise, but something that is explained in the scriptures. It’s mentioned that a pure devotee respects everyone, and this is exactly because he can see the difference between the body and the soul. We may not be pure devotees yet, but if we can gradually practice developing the same vision, at least on a theoretical platform, this can help us a lot to deal with a lot of dificult situations.
Another point to keep in mind is that, improbable as it may seem, there is always a chance that we may be actually the ones who are wrong. In such cases, acting more rationally will also help us to understand it when that’s the case.
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