Tuesday, December 21st, 2010

Unite to Fight

Cloverdale, British Columbia

One guest at this evening's satsang (spiritual gathering) relayed that he recently went to visit a church, and in the lobby was a list of names of people from that congregation deputed to proselytize to various groups. This evangelical church had as its target audiences Moslems, Sikhs, Filipinos etc.

"This is rather bold of them," I thought. Why not aim at atheists for attempted conversion? It is an interesting phenomena that religious groups, at least some, have so little tolerance for each other. You would expect some sharing of universal principles, but that's not often the case. If there's one God, couldn't faith believers function under one umbrella? Wouldn't a change from atheism to theism or vice versa be a true conversion?

At this evening's function at the home of Robert and Banke, I led a discussion about revolutionaries of faith like Chaitanya and associate Nityananda. The latter's approach to conversion was without contempt or malice. Nityananda went home to home encouraging people to chant mantras. Driven by compassion, He moved about indiscriminately to homes whether they were Brahmans, the more humbly-born, or Moslems,

We also spoke of the compassion of admired saints such as Narada, whose technique was not to go door to door, but to just walk in, and our Prabhupada, who traveled to continents to attract searching souls; especially among the hippies situated in city parks.

I have often admired Mormons whose young men go on a two year mission traveling in twos, knocking on doors. There are the Jehovah's Witnesses, who go with some bravado door to door as well. And Krishna devotees, who especially take advantage of the Christmas season to be on the streets, make available such treasureable books.

The doctrines vary. Methods are similar. Motivations may differ.

It has been said by our guru, Srila Prabhupada, that if you are of a certain faith, then improve on your spiritual pursuit. "If you are a Christian, then be a better Christian; a Jew, then be a better Jew etc."

Here's a message to all spiritual groups. "Unite to fight materialism. Love each other!"

2 KM