First dress, then address

[Guest guest]

CC Madhya 14.5

 

TRANSLATION

Following Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya’s instructions, the King had given up his

royal dress. He now entered the garden in the dress of a Vaisnava.

 

PURPORT

Sometimes members of the International Society for Krishna

Consciousness—especially in the Western countries—find it difficult to

approach people to distribute books because people are unfamiliar with the

traditional saffron robes of the devotees. The devotees have therefore

inquired whether they can wear European and American dress before the

general public. From the instructions given to King Prataparudra by

Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya, we can understand that we may change our dress in

any way to facilitate our service. When our members change their dress to

meet the public or to introduce our books, they are not breaking the

devotional principles. The real principle is to spread the Krsna

consciousness movement, and if one has to change into regular Western dress

for this purpose, there should be no objection.