Pariprashnena — Q&A Archive

Why are you sure? You could mention some marginal Vedic topics first and then get to Krsna in a roundabout, non-pushing way. If not, even the fact that youre a devotee and others notice it is preaching.

Go to the party with your wife. If you dont go, then this will leave a negative impression on you wife, even if she consciously understands why you wouldnt.

According to Bhaktivinoda Thakura in Bhaktyaloka, prajalpa must be avoided as far as possible. Practically speaking, bramacharis and sannyasis have no need to talk prajalpa. But you have to be practical. If a brahmacari goes home, and his family are worldy, then theres no avoiding prajalpa.

However, Bhaktivinoda Thakura says that for grhastas, it would be beneficial for them to talk on wordily topics, but it should be done out of duty. Otherwise, grhastas can easily fall to prajalpa and its over for them. Youre already showing resistance to this party, so you can go ahead and go and not get affected.

Sometimes when you cant preach directly, just being an intelligent gentlleman is preaching under such circumstances of social obligations. After all, you put up with your wife who only partly follows. Surely you must have to entertain her with a lot of prajalpa as well no? (No offense meant, it is just a fact of life.)

In my experience, such obligations are what you make them. Its up to you. You can sit passively and go through the motions and regret every second of it or you can take control of the direction of the conversation and make it an enlivening evening. Speak about spiritual or such related topics according to their level and what will touch them. Its enlivening for them and you. You never know, you might learn some things from such a devout Muslim. You could even start a private conversation with him about strictly following your faith where family members or social circumstances hinder your practice. You never know, he may be in a similar position as you and you might find you have more in common with him than your wife!

I always thought that this a very interesting verse, There is no purport however.

Canto 7: The Science of God Chapter 14: Ideal Family Life

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: uc0u346 ru299 mad Bhu257 gavatam 7.14.6

j'f1u257 tayahu803 pitarau putru257

bhru257 tarahu803 suhru803 do pare

yad vadanti yad icchanti

cu257 numodeta nirmamahu803

SYNONYMS

j'f1u257 tayahu803 '97 relatives, family members; pitarau '97 the father and mother; putru257 hu803 '97 children; bhru257 tarahu803 '97 brothers; suhru803 dahu803 '97 friends; apare '97 and others; yat '97 whatever; vadanti '97 they suggest (in regard to ones means of livelihood); yat '97 whatever; icchanti '97 they wish; ca '97 and; anumodeta '97 he should agree; nirmamahu803 '97 but without taking them seriously.

TRANSLATION

An intelligent man in human society should make his own program of activities very simple. If there are suggestions from his friends, children, parents, brothers or anyone else, he should externally agree, saying, "Yes, that is all right," but internally he should be determined not to create a cumbersome life in which the purpose of life will not be fulfilled.

there is direct way of preaching and the indirect one

direct is by trying to convince them to follow vaishnav path and indirect is to give them prasad,darshan of your dieties ,have them smell offered incense etc.

indirect is also preaching.

you can also help them become better devotees in the context of their own religion(while stuffing them with prasad)

you can learn a little bit about the Islam (essence is the same as KC) and try to uplift them by talking about the humility and tolerance of Muhammad a.s.:

'93A Bedouin urinated in the mosque, and the people got up to sort him out. The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said to them, '91Leave him alone, and throw a bucket of water over it. You have been sent to make things easy for people, not to make things hard.'92 '94 (Fath, 6128).

you can teach the your Muslim neighbor about what his books say about eating beef :

Hadith on Milk, Ghee and Beef

This comes from the famous hadith collection Z'e2d al-ma'91'e2d by Ibn Qayyim. I have been all through the many hadith books and I have never found any saying that the Prophet of Islam, peace be upon him, ate beef. In fact, he advised against it. If this guidance from the Prophet would be better known, then it could really help to ease the tensions between Hindus and Muslims over the beef issue, if the Muslims would leave off eating beef on the advice of their own Prophet. Let there be peace and harmony between Hindus and Muslims, peace and harmony in the whole world. I wish that could come true!

First, the hadith in the original Arabic:

'91an suhayb radiya All'e2h '91anhu yarfa'91uhu:
'91alaykum bi-laban al-baqar fa-innah'e2 shif'e2 wa-samnuh'e2 daw'e2 wa-lahmuh'e2 d'e2.

The Urdu translation:

hazrat suhaib raziyall'e2hu '91anh se riv'e2yat hai keh huz'fbr-e akram sall'e1 All'e2h '91alaihi va-sallam ne farm'e2y'e2:
"g'e2'ee k'e2 d'fbdh isti'91m'e2l karn'e2 l'e2zim pakaR lo, ky'fb n keh us me n shif'e2 hai, aur us ke gh'ee me n dav'e2 k'ee t'e2 s 'eer hai, aur us ke gosht me n rog hai."

Free translation in English:

The Prophet, peace be upon him, said:
"You should use cows milk, because it is good for health, and cows ghee is good for health, but beef is bad for health."

Actually, the literal meaning of the words the Prophet used is much stronger than that. He said that milk is "healing," ghee is "medicine," and beef is "disease."

Urdu commentary by Hafiz Nazr Ahmad:

mustadrak-e hak'eem k'ee kit'e2buttibb me n pahl'ee had'ee s yeh hai keh ras'fblull'e2h sallall'e2hu '91alaihi va-sallam ne farm'e2y'e2, "all'e2h ne ko'ee b'eem'e2r'ee nah'ee n ut'e2r'ee jis k'ee dav'e2 nah ut'e2r'ee ho, aur g'e2'ee ke d'fbdh me n har b'eem'e2r'ee se shif'e2 k'ee t'e2 s 'eer hai." us kit'e2b k'ee t'eesr'ee had'ee s me n shif'e2 k'ee vajah yeh farm'e2'ee, "ky'fbnkeh g'e2'ee har dirakht se cart'ee hai -- fa-innah'e2 tarummu min kull shajar."

In the Book of Medicine of the Mustadrak al-Hak'eem [a classical hadith commentary by al-Hak'eem al-N'eesabur'ee], the first hadith is: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings upon him, said: "Allah did not create any disease without creating its cure; and in cows milk is a cure for every disease." The third hadith in this book says on the subject of healing: "Because the cow grazes from every kind of plant."

It is a fact that, compared to that of camels, buffaloes, sheep, goats, and all other animals, cows milk is superior. It is free from everything harmful and provides healing for various illnesses. The butter and ghee from cows milk are a treatment for several more diseases. Physicians prescribe it as medicine. On the other hand, beef is hot in nature, and its heat causes some diseases to occur.

This hadith and commentrary were published in a book called Tibb-i nabav'ee by H'e2fiz Na z r Ahmad (Dihl'ee: Varld Isl'e2mik Pablikeshanz, 1982), p. 226.

One of my acuaintances is a muslim fellow who used to smoke and drink and have very unregulated life.I took time to tell him about what Muhamad preached (knowing that he was not ready to hear about KC.Now he goes to the mosque every day and prays 5 times per day.He stopped smoking ,drinking and even became little inquisitive about KC.

My wife and I fed him prasadam.He saw our Lordships Sri Sri Gaur Nitay and Tulasi devi but I never spoke to him about KC in the context of Vasihnavism.I spoke about God consciousness in the context that he could appreciate and we found this approach working.

We could have repelled him by talking about something that was way over his head at the time.

To summarize: if you genuinely care about your friends you will seek for the way to help make their lives more meaningful by truing to point them in Krishnas direction

If you wish to judge them,look down upon them thereby cultivating the pride in yourself you can do that too.

preaching means treating others the way you would like to be treated.giving proper example,being compassionate,all inclusive,trying hard to save the drowning souls and expecting nothing in return for it,not even their acceptance.