Muslims Getting Krsna Consciousness
BY: HARE KRISHNA TURKEY
Feb 14, TURKEY (SUN) — Hare Krsna dear devotees, please accept my humble obeisences unto you all. All glories to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. I hope the following tips can help you in sharing what you know about Krsna consciousness in a nice loving way with your Muslim friends in Muslim countries. The tips below can be adapted if you are in western countries and more so if you distribute books on the street: Remember; Time-Place-Circumstances- and your audiences capacity to understand and accept are always factors to consider with each presentation.
1, First please check your mood before you share Krsna consciousness with anyone. Ask yourself, are you trying to share Krsna consciousness out of love for the soul within the body you are seeing or is it out of false ego that you want to convert this person to your group, your label? People were always so affected by Srila Prabhupada. One devotee once said to Prabhupada “Prabhupada everyone loves you so much” and Prabhupada said “yes, because I love everyone”. We really need this consciousness when dealing with people, specially Muslims. They are very very sensetive and can pick up very quickly if you are just trying to convert them, then you have lost them as well as possibly getting a heavy bad reaction too!
This is why we can not stress enough that when you are dealing with such souls, it is very, very important you establish a real friendship with them first. Just like a doctor about to perform a painful operation must gain the trust and faith of the patient first otherwise the patient will always be too afraid and tense for the operation to be successful. This is part of Krsna con, it is not Maya! Yes, it takes a lot more time but worth it. Establishing a relationship based on friendship will open the door to exchange and acceptance of the higher realisations of Krsna con and save you from being completely rejected, being attacked or having the police being called for you. I have had Muslim friends who later weren’t so attracted to Krsna consciousness but never gave us any troubles because they thought “anyway he is my friend, this is his personal life, let him be” if they felt I was just a preacher they would call the police immediately and have me removed oneway or another! Srila Prabhupada was and is so successful because he wins your friendship and trust first then you are ready to hear and possibly accept anything he says.
2, So now you are ready to share, what do you say to Muslims? I have heard many speculations about our view on Islam and Muslims, a lot of bad ones coming from Indian people and even devotees from India stating “well, the bhavishya purana says this and that. Please understand we generally cannot understand any purana unless it is explained by our founder Acarya Srila Prabhupada. With any field of teaching you want to take up please check out fully what Prabhupada says about this first. This gives us the correct angle, correct understanding, correct mood to develop, avoid treading on dangerous grounds, fully consult Srila Prabhupada first and senior devotees in the same field. There was a big devotee who once went on public radio and said the Prophet Hz. Mohammed was some kind of Hobgoblin, Muslims are followers of Shiva and more... Terrible! Can you find one place where Prabhupada says such things? No! What does he say? The Complete opposite, here are some quotes and more in the Vedabase. Knowing the philosophy is one thing but having the wrong mood is something else. We must hear, see and understand the mood of Prabhupada when he deals with different matters then we can do a better job of following him.
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada:
1. “Hazrat Muhammad, the inaugurator of the Islam religion, I accept him as an empowered servant of God because he preached God-consciousness in those parts of the world and induced them to accept the authority of God. He is accepted as the servant of God and we have all respect for him.” ( Letter, 2-4-1976)
2. So therefore, by that symptom, we accept Lord Jesus Christ as Saktyaves avatara, or Hazrat Muhammad, he’s also. Because these two religious leaders of the world, they preached about the glorification of the Supreme Lord. And they sacrificed everything for preaching the glories of the Lord. Therefore... And their influence and their followers, there are... These are the symptoms by which we can understand that Jesus Christ and Hazrat Muhammad was, were Saktyaves avataras. ( CC Madhya-lila 20.367-84)
3. “Vedas means the books of transcendental knowledge. Not only the Bhagavad Gita, even the Bible or the Quran, they are also.” (lecture 29-7-68)
4. Srila Prabhupada:No, no. Christianity is Vaisnavism.
Dr. Patel: Vaisnavism? Absolutely Vaisnavism.
Srila Prabhupada:Islam is also Vaisnavism.
Dr. Patel: Mohammedanism is not Vaisnavism.
Srila Prabhupada:No, no. Caitanya Mahaprabhu had talked with the Pathanas.
He proved that “Your religion is Vaisnavism.”
(February 17, 1974, Bombay)
5. “Chaitanya Mahaprabhu proved devotional service from the Quran.
So , it requires a devotee who can explain God from any Godly literature”
( Morning Walk, June 6, 1974, Geneva)
6. “Then Islam is Vaishnava dharma in a crude form like christianty.”(room conversation, Tehran 14-3-75)
7. They accept God. They are also our brothers because they accept God. They are not atheist. Atheist don’t accept God. “there is no God” say the atheist. But here they are theists. They accept God. They want to please God. They go to the church, go to mosques, offer prayers. Prayers is also bhakti, devotional service. The Christian way or the Muslim way is to offer prayer. The Muslims offer obeisences and offer prayer. So that is also Bhakti (devotion). The Christians also do that, so that is also bhakti. And they accept God; We accept God. So there is no difference. But the only point is who is that God. ( room conversation, Tehran 14-3-75)
So you can see what is our mission, simply to try and increase our attraction and their attraction to the Supreme personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krsna and help them to develop further attachment to Krsna and loving service unto Krsna (Bhakti yoga). What process they choose to follow, like Prabhupada we should leave up to each individual to decide for themselves without any tinge of label, bodily identification (you must join my group) rubbish! Krsna Himself says: “Thus I have explained to you knowledge still more confidential. Deliberate on this fully, and then do what you wish to do” Bhagavad Gita 18-63.
”My mission is not turn any one from the affiliation of a particular religion but I want to let them know more knowledge about God and devotion.” 6-11-1965, (letters) Srila Prabhupada.
“Actually, we are not teaching a particular type of faith. We are teaching the post graduate studies of all religions: we are teaching people how to love God and who is the man that will deny this principle?” 5-12-68, Srila Prabhupada.
Now you have checked your mood a little, Prabhupada’s mood and what we want to achieve, how do we practically do this?
Srila Prabhupada would often say, our process is very easy, we don’t have to manufacture anything new. Simply follow the previous Acaryas, so sharing bhakti yoga with the Muslim world is no exception. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself had talks with both educated and not so educated Muslims. He is showing us how to present Krsna consciousness in a way that the conditioned soul will accept. If you go up to a Muslim and say “hey, the Bhagavad-gita says this and that, why don’t you follow…. You would be lucky to just get some harsh words!! Krsna as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu met and convinced Muslims to take up the chanting of the Hare Krsna Maha Mantra and more devotional service by speaking through their book (The Holy Koran) using their words and their understanding gradually bringing them up to the realizations of the Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam . This is the way set by Krsna Himself and as we know He is very successful! We have therefore put together these books listed below which explain these topics in much more detail to help you in your service:
1. SRILA PRABHUPADA ON ISLAM( everything His Divine Grace A.C. Prabhupada ever said about Islam)
2. BHAKTI YOGA and ISLAM (questions and answers encountered in the field by Srila Prabhupada and
devotees sharing Krsna Consciousness with Muslims in Muslim countries)
3. THE HIDDEN TREASURE OF AL-QURAN. (the HOLY QURAN as explained by CAITANYA MAHAPRABHU)
4. COMPARATIVE COSMOLOGY. (comparative study of scIence, QURAN, BIBLE and VEDIC KNOWLEDGE)
5. ENLIGHTENMENT OF CHAND KAZI. (the teachings of Caitanya Mahaprabhu to the Muslim leader Chand Kazi)
6. KRSNA CONSCIOUNESS and ISLAM. A 20 hour double CD presentation about how to present
Krsna Consciousness to the Muslim world.
7. Bhagavad Gita BOOK complete in ARABIC, Delux edition, hard bound. Very few left
8. Bhagavad Gita Hot of the press! The whole 18 chapters in Arabic ( 2 audio Cds)
9. Bhagavad Gita TUrkce, 900 pages complete with Sanskrit texts and word for word.
I shall be in Mayapur for the super excellent Gaura Purnim festival from the 2nd of March to the 14th of March. Any devotees or temples wishing to obtain these books from me can find me at the ISKCON, Mayapur youth forum building. If any of you want the Hard bound Arabic Bhagavad-gita please e-mail me immediately so that I can carry them to Mayapur for you and if you have any questions regarding Krsna consciousness and Islam, we are welcome to contact us:
harekrishnaturkey@yahoo.com
http://www.harekrishnaturkey.com
Thanking you for your time, hoping you all have a wonderful Gaura Purnim festival and a happy new year with lots of nice preaching opportunities helping seeds blossom into beautiful rose like devotees. Hare Krsna Your servant, Nararatna das.
