Patience is Required

One of the most essential qualities which must be developed in the hearts of those who are serious about perfecting the science of bhakti is the quality of patience. We have to be patient in terms of our personal progress and in terms of other's acceptance of Krishna consciousness as well. Just as we cannot expect ourselves to become immediately fully realized in Krishna consciousness, we also cannot expect others to immediately accept the principles of Krishna consciousness. So we must be patient with ourselves and patient with others also. The process of Krishna consciousness is not a one day affair. It is rather a lifetime affair. We should expect to devote our entire lives for the purpose of the full revival of our dormant love of Godhead.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Answers According to the Vedic Version:

Question: How to Answer My Friend?

̇I have been talking to a friend of mine who simply refuses to believe in any religion. He says that Ramayana and Mahabharata are just myths. He quoted from Wikipedia, "A religion is a set of stories, symbols, beliefs and practices, often with a supernatural quality, that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to an ultimate power or reality." He also says, "If there is no religion, there would be peace in the world". He says that the Bhagavad-gita is just a book written by some odd person.

Please guide me on how should I answer him? How should I make him see that there is a supreme power behind everything?

Please help.

Hare Krishna

Prateek

Answer: With Conviction and Determination

As soon as he says "any religion" we can immediately understand that he is ignorant. In spite of what you may read here and there, there is no such thing as different religions. The word "religion" comes from the Latin word "religio', which means to reconnect. So the real meaning of religion is to reconnect with the source of your existence and of all existence, i.e. the fountainhead of all energies. If your friend wants to argue that there is no source of the existence, ask him how he came into being.

Regarding the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, he has no way of proving that they are myths. This is simply his mental speculation. They are historical documents just like so many other historical documents which tell us about people and events from the past.

While cheating so-called religion certainly breeds war, genuine religion does not. Genuine religion breeds genuine peace. Check out parts of the world with a high level of atheism and see if they are peaceful. You will find that they are not. Hence, his argument is bogus. We don't have peace in the present world because genuine religion is practically non-existent on this planet. We in the Krishna consciousness movement are trying to revive it.

The Bhagavad-gita is spoken by Krishna. Your friend is therefore claiming that Krishna is odd. In the Bhagavad-gita Krishna claims that those who deride Him are fools. So now we have two counter claims. Who will be the winner of this competition? That will be seen at the time of death who was actually the fool and who actually odd.

Tell him that every machine has an operator. Have we ever seen a machine without an operator? No, we have not. Therefore we can understand the gigantic cosmic machine must also have an operator.

Try your best. Preach with conviction and determination, and Krishna will help you to defeat all opposing arguments.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari