Questions And Answers: Anarthās / Bad association

Guru Mahārāja, sometimes the atheist people, they argue with devotees and ask questions like, who is the creator of the Lord?
Questioner: Shurva Dey Babu
Date: 2023-12-11
Jayapatākā Swami: The Lord is not created.
īśvara paramaḥ kṛṣṇa sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ, anādir ādir govindaḥ sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam.
Things in the material world are created and destroyed,
but in the spiritual world or the Absolute Truth, there is no creation and no destruction,
they have been eternally existing,
and the Lord is the cause of all causes.
He is original
and He is without origin.
Ādi and anādi –
original and without any origin.
Category: [Anarthās / Bad association]
How can an initiated devotee, who has fallen away from the regulative principles due to sense gratification and has lost touch with the holy name and devotee association, resume his service towards guru and Prabhupāda?
Questioner: Siddhāntamaṇi Prabhupāda dāsa
Date: 2022-10-17
Jayapatākā Swami: If one is initiated and breaks the principles,
they are guilty of one of the offences to the holy name
disrespecting the order of the spiritual master.
So there is no higher atonement than devotional service.
So in that case one should repent for their misdeed
and then again take up the practice of devotional service,
as sincerely as possible, and gradually they can regain their status.
But, of course they have ceased their progress for some time, but they can start again
and there is no other way recommended by the śāstras.
Category: [Anarthās], [Anarthās / Bad association], [Anarthās / Māyā], [Aparādha (Offenses)], [Emotions / Enthusiasm]
How can we keep ourselves unaffected by the non-devotees people around us especially at school?
Questioner: Devotee
Date: 2023-09-02
Jayapatākā Swami: Preach to them,
don’t let them preach to you!
Think how you can help them on the path to Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Thank you for – you remember Prahlāda Mahārāja, he was in a school with all demon children,
but he preached to them
and he got them to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.
They said we are kids, we want to play, we don’t want to chant.
He said, you spend half your life sleeping, playing,
Category: [Anarthās / Bad association], [Day-to-day Life], [Day-to-day Life / Education], [Vaiṣṇava Dealings / Association (Sādhu-saṅga)]
How do we avoid the offenses from our unavoidable association with non-devotees who hardly believe in Kṛṣṇa?
Questioner: Ānandinī Sītā devī dāsī
Date: 2022-08-29
Although we have to associate with non-devotees we should not intimately associate with them.
And if we try to give them the holy name, try to give them Bhagavad-gītā, that will be very effective.
We don’t take their association; we give them our association.
Vidura did not go to Dhṛtarāṣṭra to get his satsaṅga.
He went to give his satsaṅga
We should when we meet non-devotees we should think how to bring the person closer to Kṛṣṇa.
Not to engage in prajalpa with them.
Thank you Ānandini Sītā for your question.
Category: [Anarthās], [Anarthās / Bad association], [Anarthās / Māyā], [Material World], [Vaiṣṇava Dealings / Association (Sādhu-saṅga)]
If for some reason I am unable to understand who is a non-devotee and by mistake I hear from him, what will be my atonement?
Questioner: Devotee
Date: 2022-12-06
Jayapatākā Swami: We hope that you are not poisoned.
You should hear from a pure devotee and read Śrīla Prabhupāda books and take the mistaken thoughts from your mind. 
Category: [Anarthās], [Anarthās / Bad association], [Aparādha (Offenses)], [Sādhanā / Philosophical questions]
One of the devotees I know who is your disciple has fallen down. Parents of that devotee are constantly lamenting and in great grief their child has almost stopped practicing devotional service and left home and started living alone and started doing bad saṅga. My question is that if any devotee falls down from devotional service, should we lament for the devotee? Is it okay for the parents to lament excessively?
Questioner: Devotee
Date: 2024-02-19
Jayapatākā Swami: Naturally a parent should want to make a son or daughter Kṛṣṇa conscious.
And when the son or daughter is well-situated in Kṛṣṇa consciousness,
naturally the parent is relieved.
And if a child is in māyā,
then naturally the parent should be preoccupied.
Not to the extent that they give up their own practice of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
But encourage the son to come back or be Kṛṣṇa conscious.
Category: [Anarthās], [Anarthās / Bad association]
Some people are allured by the duplicitous bābājīs and consider them guru. How to preach to these kind of people?
Questioner: Kackuly Rāṇī
Date: 2022-08-27
Jayapatākā Swami: You just stick to the Vedas.
Show them what the Bhagavad-gītā says
and then if the bābā has said something different,
we cannot deal with that.
We say we follow the Vedas.
So then, that way some people they want to follow some false avatāras.
In Rajahmundry there was a person and he claimed to be an avatāra of Kalki.
Then they showed how in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Kalki avatāra comes at the end of Kali.
And Kali has only just started.
There are 4,27,000 years to go.
Isn’t it not a little off time?
He said I may not be Kalki, but I am an avatāra!
So there are many people like this they are bogus.
And gradually you have to just stick to the Vedas.
We are basically followers of the Vedas.
If someone preaches something against the Vedas,
what can we do?
We can show them that what they are saying is against the Vedas.
Therefore, the sincere people will follow us.
There was one guru in Bengal, he was a sahajiyā.
He said that the devotee, he or she I forgot, was coming to the Nāmahaṭṭa.
And they learnt that Vaiṣṇavas take kṛṣṇa-prasāda.
So she gave the vegetarian food to the kula-guru.
He said, “What is this? What is this?
I am your guru.
I should be given opulent food.
These vegetables are cheap.
Fish, meat are expensive.
Give me the dāmi food! I don’t want this cheap food.”
Then she realized that this guru was bogus.
So, that way we have to stick to the Vedas and gradually we convince people.
Some people may choose a bābā because they want to eat fish or meat or something.
What can we do?
Then we try to present how eating prasāda is better
and by eating meat we get the bad karma.
And become a cat or
dog
or tiger.
Category: [Anarthās], [Anarthās / Apasampradāya], [Anarthās / Bad association], [Aparādha (Offenses)], [Emotions / Hypocrisy]
Sometimes, even after giving all the love and philosophical teachings, the children still do not take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. What is to be done?
Questioner: Bhagavān Dāmodara Kṛṣṇa dāsa
Date: 2022-09-08
Category: [Anarthās], [Anarthās / Bad association], [Day-to-day Life / Children], [Day-to-day Life / Parents], [Emotions / Confusion]
The great souls like Vidura and Haridāsa Ṭhākura were associates and great devotees of the Lord, so it was easy for them to overcome māyā but fallen souls like us get affected by material association and fall down. What to do in this kind of situation?
Questioner: Subāhu Śacī Sūta dāsa
Date: 2022-08-29
Jayapatākā Swami: The type of tests that Haridāsa Ṭhākura had to go through, we usually don’t have to face such tests.
He was beaten in 22-marketplaces.
There was a prostitute tried to make him fall down.
I heard that Durgā devī even she came to test him.
We don’t have to face such gigantic tests.
If we pray to Kṛṣṇa to help us, Kṛṣṇa usually helps us.
We get very minor tests and even those we fail.
But we can get over these tests if we have the sincere desire.
If we depend on Kṛṣṇa, then we will overcome all the tests.
Category: [Anarthās], [Anarthās / Bad association], [Anarthās / Māyā], [Vaiṣṇava Dealings / Association (Sādhu-saṅga)]
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