G: If two senior devotees have a disagreement, what should the junior devotee do to avoid it? You see if it is over preaching, there may be a disagreement, one thinks we should distribute books, someone thinks he should build the temple, someone thinks one should build a temple to distribute books, there may be a difference of opinion of which type of preaching is most appropriate. But that is authorized in devotional service. But if one gives a false accusation, a false or fake news as they call it today on the internet or on the social media against some other devotee, and if it is not true, if it is not confirmed and if it is written as if it is true it could be offensive and for a vaisnava aparadh, one may not get love of Krsna. One has to be very careful to avoid vaisnava aparadh. So although one may have a difference of opinion, which way of preaching is better, they should not criticize the other devotee having a different opinion. Rather, they should treat each other with respect. So the only thing a junior devotee could do is he could ask a question – if you are two senior devotees, I respect both of you, you are probably fighting in disagreement, should I take that as an example? Should I follow? What should I do because I respect you as my siksa gurus or senior devotees. So what should I understand of your publicly fighting with each other? If we ask as a question, then it is not an offence. It should not be a challenging question; it should be a sincere inquiry.
HH JAYAPATAKA SWAMI
26th June 2019
Question & Answer Session
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia