When one preaches he must tell the truth. Just like Lord Jesus Christ. The people did not like his preaching, but he did not stop his preaching. That is another point. You see? So in the preaching propaganda there is possibility of creating animosity

Expressions researched:
"When one preaches he must tell the truth. Just like Lord Jesus Christ. The people did not like his preaching, but he did not stop his preaching. That is another point. You see? So in the preaching propaganda there is possibility of creating animosity"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

When one preaches he must tell the truth. Just like Lord Jesus Christ. The people did not like his preaching, but he did not stop his preaching. That is another point. You see? So in the preaching propaganda there is possibility of creating animosity. Yes. There is possible. Just see that unnecessarily my Godbrothers are troubling.

Conversation with George Harrison -- July 22, 1973, London:

Śyāmasundara: But better to listen . . . for you, probably, to listen to a tape of Prabhupāda pronouncing Sanskrit, because you have musical ear.

George: Yes, I can learn anything by ear.

Śyāmasundara: By hearing it.

Prabhupāda: Ah, yes. Your hearing is very sharp. (laughs)

Śyāmasundara: Anyway, the translation is, "Whatever action is performed by a great man, common men follow in his footsteps. And whatever standards he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues."

Prabhupāda: So this is your duty now. (laughs) By the grace of Kṛṣṇa you are one of the great men. Although you are young man, but Kṛṣṇa has placed you in such a high position that there are many young men who follows you. So that is the instruction.

George: There is some . . . you know, Śyāmasundara and I were talking just on the way here, and it's like, when you commit yourself to something, in a way it's like putting your head on the chopping block. Because people, you know, somebody can turn around and chop it off, or it may be you're lucky and, you know, it doesn't get chopped off.

Prabhupāda: No, it is not chopping off.

George: I find that this, um . . . I find that the more commitment that you make, or that I make, even though it's such a little commitment, I mean, relatively speaking it's such a little one, now I'm getting in the area where I find that people are . . . it provokes, um . . .

Prabhupāda: Thoughts.

George: Well, sometimes it provokes bad reaction.

Prabhupāda: Ācchā?

Śyāmasundara: Sometimes people become agitated by his words.

Prabhupāda: Oh. Mūrkhāya upadeśo hi prakopāya na śāntaye (Hitopadeśa). There is a verse that if one is foolish, if you give him good instruction he becomes angry. Just like the example is given, payaḥ-pānaṁ bhujaṅgānāṁ kevalaṁ viṣa-vardhanaṁ: If you keep a snake and if you give him milk, the result will be that his poison will increase. Payaḥ-pānaṁ bhujaṅgānāṁ kevalaṁ viṣa-vardhanaṁ. So sometimes it happens that, ah, if one is foolish, if you give him good advice he becomes angry. Mūrkhāya upadeśo hi prokopāya śāntāya. But . . . has it happened like that? No, I don't think so.

George: I, you know, you can feel, I can feel a little animosity comes from people who, I don't know for what reason, but people . . .

Śyāmasundara: Envious maybe.

Prabhupāda: Envious.

George: I don't know which is . . . in some ways the more committed you are to the thing and the stronger that you are in what you do, then the stronger the animosity becomes.

Prabhupāda: Yes, the other side.

George: And I'm not sure if . . . you know, sometimes I get the feeling that maybe there's one person who it means something real to and ten people who it doesn't mean anything to. And I'm not sure how it . . . if it all balances out in the end whether . . .

Śyāmasundara: Well, that one person, though, if you reach one person he is worth all of them.

George: But say you don't reach any people, and then you have a choice of reaching people and you only reach one, but in . . . by reaching that one you have twenty people who are annoyed. You know, how do you . . .?

Prabhupāda: Yes, sometimes it happens.

Śyāmasundara: His question is that if you preach and you see many men, you meet many men, you may make . . . if you meet ten men you may make nine of them enemies, and only one will become helped by your preaching. So how is that . . .

George: But if you don't say anything, then maybe all the ten of them are quite friendly.

Śyāmasundara: Is that . . . how is that beneficial?

Prabhupāda: Yes. The preaching is different, you see. When one preaches he must tell the truth. Just like Lord Jesus Christ. The people did not like his preaching, but he did not stop his preaching. That is another point. You see? So in the preaching propaganda there is possibility of creating animosity. Yes. There is possible. Just see that unnecessarily my Godbrothers are troubling.

Śyāmasundara: This temple demolishing?

Prabhupāda: Yes, you see. Innocent we are. We are simply worshiping. We have given money. Everything is alright. But they are creating some animosity . . . especially in God consciousness such things are possible, you see? We have to pay sometimes. Even Prahlāda Mahārāja, he was a five-years-old boy, and his only fault was that he is Kṛṣṇa conscious. His father became enemy, what to speak of others. Because his father did not like God consciousness, so he became enemy of his child although the child was only five years old. So there is possibility of such things. Yes.