Hare Krsna Guru Maharaj
Dandavat Pranaam unto your lotus feet.
ASA - Lettuce feet.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Sri Gouranga Mahaprabhu.
Dear Guru Maharaj,
Myself, son of your disciple Krsna Swarup Das, from Assam, North East India.
HpS - Jaya!!! So, nice to hear from you and everyone there!
I offer a prayer unto your lotus feet to kindly me give some advice regarding misunderstandings among devotees. Supposedly, if there were two groups of devotees who have some misunderstanding among themselves; (as Prabhupada used to say whenever there are 2 people there will be misunderstandings) as we are not pure souls we often tend to criticise one another, find out faults and dont try to forgive and forget any past issues easily. Due to harbouring such feelings internally, lets say both the parties tend to avoid each other while externally behaving in a opposite way. Every party thinks "I am right" and also there is no intermediary or neutral person whom both parties see as trustworthy or impartial.What could be the best possible way to bring harmony among such devotees and how one should respond if one is in such a situation (say one of the parties). Please be merciful to enlighten me in this regard.
Dandavat Pranaam unto your lotus feet.
Your ignorant servant
Bishal
HpS - Well, the first principle is that we cannot give detailed advice unless we know the situation in detail, and that would be impossible for us 12,000 miles away and connected only by internet. So, first principle is from Chanakya Pandita: Victory comes from good advice and good advice comes from many counselors. Talk to a lot of good people about the situation. We can give general view from a long distance. That is important element, so broad perspective. Then talk to people who are involve in the details.
In one Ramayana movie Hanuman was sent by Rama to try to mitigate the feud between Vali and Sugriva. He reported that Vali was going to give up his anger only when he was dead.
So, sometimes people have personal motives for which they don't want to forgive and there is nothing we, and even God to some degree, can do about it.
Read Nectar of Instruction Texts 4 and 5.
http://www.vedabase.com/en/noi/4
They give SUPER explanation of how to relate to these situation. They arise all the time and it is a big situation that we can only start to discuss. The complete answer is in Srimad Bhagavatam. Of course, that is 18,000 verses.
Basically, try to distinguish reality from illusion for the welfare of all. Try to look for the best solutions for EVERYONE's benefit and then you will feel happy.
