MUSLIMS GETTING KRSNA CONSCIOUSNESS

[Guest guest]

MUSLIMS GETTING KRSNA CONSCIOUSNESS:

Hare Krsna dear devotees, please accept my humble obeisences unto you all. All glouries to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. I hope the following tips can help you in sharing what you know about Krsna consciousness in a nice loving way with your Muslim friends in Muslim countries. The tips below can be adapted if you are in western countries & more so if you distribute books on the street: Remember; Time-Place-Circumstances- and your audiences capacity to understand & accept are always factors to consider with each presentation.

 

1, First please check your mood before you share Krsna con with anyone. Ask yourself, are you trying to share Krsna con out of love for the soul within the body you are seeing or is it out of false ego that you want to convert this person to your group, your label? People were always so affected by Srila Prabhupada. One devotee once said to Prabhupada “Prabhupada everyone loves you so much” and Prabhupada said “yes, because I love everyone”. We really need this consciousness when dealing with people, specially Muslims. They are very very sensetive & can pick up very quickly if you are just trying to convert them, then you have lost them as well as possibly getting a heavy bad reaction too! This is why we can not stress enough that when you are dealing with such souls, it is very very important you establish a real friendship with them first. Just like a doctor about to perform a painful operation must gain the trust & faith of the patient first otherwise the patient will always be too afraid & tense for the operation to be successful. This is part of Krsna con, it is not Maya! Yes, it takes alot more time but worth it. Establishing a relationship based on friendship will open the door to exchange & acceptence of the higher realisations of Krsna con & save you from being completely rejected, being attacked or having the police being called for you. I have had Muslim friends who later weren’t so attracted to Krsna consciousness but never gave us any troubles because they thought “anyway he is my friend, this is his personal life, let him be” if they felt I was just a preacher they would call the police immediately & have me removed oneway or another! Srila Prabhupada was & is so successful because he wins your friendship & trust first then you are ready to hear & possibly accept anything he says.

 

2, So now you are ready to share, what do you say to Muslims? I have heard many speculations about our view on Islam & Muslims, alot of bad ones coming from Indian people & even devotees from India stating “well, the bhavishya purana says this & that. Please understand we generally cannot understand any purana unless it is explained by our founder Acarya Srila Prabhupada. With any field of teaching you want to take up please check out fully what Prabhupada says about this first. This gives us the correct angle, correct understanding, correct mood to develop, avoid treading on dangerous grounds, fully consult Srila Prabhupada first & senior devotees in the same field. There was a big devotee who once went on public radio & said the Prophet Hz. Mohammed was some kind of Hobgoblin, Muslims are followers of Shiva and more...

Terrible! Can you find one place where Prabhupada says such things? No! What does he say? The Complete opposite, here are some quotes and more in the veda base. Knowing the philosophy is one thing but having the wrong mood is something else. We must hear, see & understand the mood of Prabhupada when he deals with different matters then we can do a better job of following him.

 

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada:

 

1. “Hazrat Muhammad, the inaugurator of the Islam religion, I accept him as an empowered servant of God because he preached God-consciousness in those parts of the world and induced them to accept the authority of God. He is accepted as the servant of God and we have all respect for him.” ( Letter, 2-4-1976)

 

2. So therefore, by that symptom, we accept Lord Jesus Christ as Saktyaves avatara, or Hazrat Muhammad, he’s also. Because these two religious leaders of the world, they preached about the glorification of the Supreme Lord. And they sacrificed everything for preaching the glories of the Lord. Therefore... And their influence and their followers, there are... These are the symptoms by which we can understand that Jesus Christ and Hazrat Muhammad was, were Saktyaves avataras. ( CC Madhya-lila 20.367-84)

 

 

3. “Vedas means the books of transcendental knowledge. Not only the Bhagavad Gita, even the Bible or the Quran, they are also.” (lecture 29-7-68)

 

4. Srila Prabhupada:No, no. Christianity is Vaisnavism.

Dr. Patel: Vaisnavism? Absolutely Vaisnavism.

Srila Prabhupada:Islam is also Vaisnavism.

Dr. Patel: Mohammedanism is not Vaisnavism.

Srila Prabhupada:No, no. Caitanya Mahaprabhu had talked with the Pathanas.

He proved that “Your religion is Vaisnavism.”

(February 17, 1974, Bombay)

 

 

5. “Chaitanya Mahaprabhu proved devotional service from the Quran.

So , it requires a devotee who can explain God from any Godly literature”

( Morning Walk, June 6, 1974, Geneva)

 

6. “Then Islam is Vaishnava dharma in a crude form like christianty.”(room conversation, Tehran 14-3-75)

 

7. They accept God. They are also our brothers because they accept God. They are not atheist. Atheist don’t accept God. “there is no God” say the atheist. But here they are theists. They accept God. They want to please God. They go to the church, go to mosques, offer prayers. Prayers is also bhakti, devotional service. The Christian way or the Muslim way is to offer prayer. The Muslims offer obeisences & offer prayer. So that is also Bhakti (devotion). The Christians also do that, so that is also bhakti. And they accept God; We accept God. So there is no difference. But the only point is who is that God. ( room conversation, Tehran 14-3-75)

 

So you can see what is our mission, simply to try and increase our attraction and their attraction to the Supreme personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krsna & help them to develop further attachment to Krsna and loving service unto Krsna (Bhakti yoga). What process they choose to follow, like Prabhupada we should leave upto each individual to decide for themselves without any tinge of label, bodily identification (you must join my group) rubbish!

Krsna Himself says: “Thus I have explained to you knowledge still more confidential. Deliberate on this fully, and then do what you wish to do” Bhagavad Gita 18-63.

 

”My mission is not turn any one from the affiliation of a particular religion but I want to let them know more knowledge about God and devotion.” 6-11-1965, (letters) Srila Prabhupada.

 

“Actually, we are not teaching a particular type of faith. We are teaching the post graduate studies of all religions:we are teaching people how to love God and who is the man that will deny this principle?” 5-12-68, Srila Prabhupada.

 

Now you have checked your mood a little, Prabhupada’s mood and what we want to achieve, how do we practically do this?

Srila Prabhupada would often say, our process is very easy, we don’t have to manufacture anything new. Simply follow the previous Acaryas, so sharing bhakti yoga with the Muslim world is no exception. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself had talks with both educated & not so educated Muslims. He is showing us how to present Krsna consciousness in a way that the conditioned soul will accept. If you go upto a Muslim & say “hey, the Bhagavad gita says this & that, why don’t you follow…. You would be lucky to just get some harsh words!! Krsna as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu met and convinced Muslims to take up the chanting of the Hare Krsna Maha Mantra & more devotional service by speaking through their book (The Holy Koran) using their words & their understanding gradually bringing them up to the realizations of the Bhagavad Gita & Srimad Bhagavatam . This is the way set by Krsna Himself & as we know He is very successful! We have therefore put together these books listed below which explain these topics in much more detail to help you in your service:

 

1, SRILA PRABHUPADA ON ISLAM( everything His Divine Grace A.C. Prabhupada ever said about Islam)

 

2, BHAKTI YOGA and ISLAM (questions and answers encountered in the field by Srila Prabhupada &

devotees sharing Krsna Consciousness with Muslims in Muslim countries)

 

3, THE HIDDEN TREASURE OF AL-QURAN. (the HOLY QURAN as explained by CAITANYA MAHAPRABHU)

 

4, COMPARATIVE COSMOLOGY. (comparative study of SCIENCE, QURAN, BIBLE & VEDIC KNOWLEDGE)

 

5, ENLIGHTENMENT OF CHAND KAZI. (the teachings of Caitanya Mahaprabhu to the Muslim leader Chand Kazi)

 

6, KRSNA CONSCIOUNESS & ISLAM. A 20 hour double CD presentation about how to present

Krsna Consciousness to the Muslim world.

 

7, BHAGAVAD GİTA BOOK complete in ARABIC, Delux edition, hard bound. Very few left

 

8, BHAGAVAD GİTA Hot of the press! The whole 18 chapters in Arabic ( 2 audio Cds)

 

9, BHAGAVAD GİTA TURKCE, 900 pages complete with Sanskrit texts & word for word.

 

I shall be in Mayapur for the super excellent Gaurapurnim festival from the 2nd of March to the 14th of March. Any devotees or temples wishing to obtain these books from me can find me at the iskcon, mayapur youth forum building. If any of you want the Hard bound Arabic Bhagavad Gita please e-mail me immediately so that I can carry them to Mayapur for you.

harekrishnaturkey@ www.harekrishnaturkey.com

Thanking you for your time, hoping you all have a wonderul Gaurapurnim festival & a happy new year with lots of nice preaching opportunaties helping seeds blossom into beautiful rose like devotees. Hare Krsna Your servant Nararatna das.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

 

So now you are ready to share, what do you say to Muslims? I have heard many speculations about our view on Islam & Muslims, alot of bad ones coming from Indian people & even devotees from India stating “well, the bhavishya purana says this & that. Please understand we generally cannot understand any purana unless it is explained by our founder Acarya Srila Prabhupada. With any field of teaching you want to take up please check out fully what Prabhupada says about this first. This gives us the correct angle, correct understanding, correct mood to develop, avoid treading on dangerous grounds, fully consult Srila Prabhupada first

 

 

Some people point out in Bhavishya Purana Mahamad was a bhut, so what? He was sent by Shiva to do the Lord's work. And Caitanya and Srila Prabhupada say Islam is Vaishnavism.

[Guest guest]

Hare Krishna.

 

I have all respects to the harekrishna Turkey devotee and also the Muslims.

 

But Muslims are very violent due to their religion.

 

"Since you Muslims cannot bring back killed cows back

to life, you are responsible for killing them.

Therefore you are going to hell; there is no way for

your deliverance.” Cow-killers are condemned to rot in

hellish life for as many thousands of years as there

are hairs on the body of the cow. There are many

mistakes and illusions in your scriptures. Their

compilers, not knowing the essence of knowledge, gave

orders that were against reason and argument.”

Lord Caitanya to Kazi (a Muslim), Caitanya Caritamrta

Adi-lila chapter 17.165-167.

 

[Guest guest]

How is this different from the Christians?

 

Christians kill cows too. By that definition, all outsider meateaters are doomed.

[Guest guest]

Lord Chaitanya's message applies to all cow eaters, which includes many Hindus living in the west who also eat cows.