20240302 Question-and-Answer Session

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-gurun dina tāriṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Question: I am a first-year college student. I feel a lot of humility and challenging questions as how I put tilaka and kaṇṭhi-mālā. These questions are mostly targeted towards our disciplic succession and our society. What should I do? Should I answer them or just be quiet that they won’t understand all the philosophical answers? Sometimes the questions make me feel desperate which I know is not at all correct. What should I do?

Jayapatākā Swami: What to say? Say something which would bring them closer to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Maybe show them a book which can give them such information. If they are not aggressive or negative, then you might tell them something - in your fraternity they say you have to do some strange things. How the people actually will understand is a good question. You might say that you are wearing it to please your spiritual master. He told me to wear the kaṇṭhi-mālā. Or you might say I am a person, Kṛṣṇa the Supreme Personality of Godhead He is a person, and when I wear this, He protects me. Foolish people, they don’t realize how powerful, how nice it is to having Kṛṣṇa as our friend.

Kṛṣṇe matir astu!