Varnasrama: serving the Lord by serving His devotees

[Guest guest]

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

 

> In my opinion, for a devotee, karma-yoga is the same thing as bhakti-yoga.

 

First of all I appreciated both your and Hare Krishna Prabhu's texts very

much and I want to thank you for the inspiration they offers.

We can act in so many ways while performing our duty, we can preach by

being nice and responsible persons and in the same time letting everyone

know that we are a Hare Krishna or simply by putting seed of thoughts out

into the open.

 

We dont go door to door in the town we live, but everyone know that we are

Hare Krishna's, sometimes we hear them chanting either in fun or just

curiously when they pass our house. Sometimes the school invites my husband

for giving classes to the young people. Sometimes I bring prasadam to the

school I attend, and sometimes I give my oppinions in discussions on

different matters seen from the vedic point, often to great surprise from

the other students since they would never see things from that point of view

themselves. Most of them have never met a Hare Krishna in civil and I

think it gives them an important impression of that we are also people,

individuals and not simply a fanatical sect, (which they often think) they

see my children being individuals too, travel a lot, doing music, having

interesting lifes and it all broadens their understanding of

Krishna-consciousness and they will speak with others.

 

What I learn in school I can use for writing articles in our

Krishna-magazine and radio-programs in Radio Krishna, and I can suply people

with cookbooks and advise them on being a vegetarian.

 

All this is long-time preaching, some kind of bhakti-yoga I would like to

think, it has taken quite some years for people to accept us as we are in

this small village, but resently the priest even friendly asked me if the

sankirtan-devotees visiting us were gone again.

They all keep a close look at us

 

My husband worked in a place a little while ago where he arranged lectures

in the meeting-house of the town. He arranged mostly for ecological farming

and building courses and in that way he also was able to make some good

contacts himself for future use if we ever get a piece of land.

 

I could continue but then it will be too long, the point is: simply

thinking and acting as a devotee, aware of peoples stand, not fanatical, is

preaching/bhakti-yoga? in itself, of course with qualitative differences, in

the long run it might prove quite substantial. We will see.

 

I would like to hear more about how others handle their situations as

devotees, while living in a material society.

Can you see any future in it?

 

Your servant Gunamani d.d.