Relish Saintly Qualities of Lord's Devotees

Even though the Lord's devotees have taken to the process of Krishna consciousness to become free from all faults, as long as they are in this material world it is natural that they will still have some faults. In spite of this, we should not be very eager to see their faults. We should be looking instead to see their saintly qualities. Will we criticize a man for being filthy while he is bathing himself in the shower? No, of course not. So instead of being like flies looking for the sore-like faults in the devotees, we should be like honeybees who only desire to relish the honey of their wonderful saintly qualities. In this connection Srila Prabhupada explains, "The devotees of Krishna are the most exalted persons on this planet, better than kings, all of them, so we should always remember that and, like the bumblebee, always look for the nectar or the best qualities of a person."

In conclusion, the more we meditate on the saintly qualities of the devotees, the more our own innate saintly qualities will come out, and the more we meditate on the faults of the devotees, the more our faults will be predominant.

Early Day ISKCON Devotees at New York's 26 Avenue Temple

Answers by Citing the Vedic Version:

Question: How to Handle Blasphemers?

What should a Krishna consciousness person do if someone blasphemes against Lord Krishna or His devotees? Please guide me on ways to handle this especially when the person is unavoidable, like at home or in the office.

There's another religion where even the slightest blasphemy would mean ghastly acts of terror by its followers and all this killing is justified. Isn't it wrong to resort to such violent acts if someone blasphemes God?

Regards,
Kaushik

Answer: Defeat Them, Leave the Place, or Tune Them Out

If someone blasphemes Krishna or His devotee the best thing to do is defeat them philosophically. Convince them they are completely wrong to say such nonsense so that they will feel remorse and apologize. If this is not possible, one should immediately leave that place, because by hearing blasphemy one's devotion to Krishna will be destroyed. If you are stuck with them like at home or in the office and you cannot convince them that they are wrong, you should block your hears rather than be polluted by hearing blasphemy. For example you can get a headset for hearing Krishna conscious lectures and Hare Krishna kirtan. In this way by tuning into Krishna katha you can tune them out. If you cannot tune them out with a headset, you should tune them out simply by putting your mind somewhere else.

Committing blasphemy is certainly a greatly sinful act. Even though even our scriptures say that blasphemers should be killed, this should NOT be taken literally in this age. This is so because on the plea of Lord Nityananda Lord Caitanya forgave the blasphemers Jagai and Madhai rather than killing them. In this age of Kali because everyone is a blasphemer, if we were to kill the blasphemers, we would have to kill everyone. So the conclusion is that instead of killing the blasphemers, we should kill their blasphemous mentality by the wide scale distribution introduction of Hari nama sankirtan (the congregational chanting of they holy names of God) and the wide scale distribution of transcendental literatures such as the Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam. This will bring about the much desired peace and happiness for the world.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari