What does it mean to preach purely?
Srila Prabhupada demonstrated how to preach purely. Purity is possible in presence of absolute absence of false ego. Absolute absence of false ego automatically implies absolute absence of identification with the body.
We heard many times that we are not this body. Some of us came to believe that they realized that they are not this body. But the proof is in the taste. The proof is in the result.
Even Srila Prabhupada put us instantly into the preaching field, little considering our academic or even spiritual qualifications. It doesn’t mean that the purity of our preaching is granted instantly. Srila Prabhupada used the example of fire. What does it matter what language fire brigade men speak to those who are trapped in midst of the fiery inferno? The victims have to be saved. Still, a drunken fire brigade man can turn out to be more of a problem as a help to eliminate the danger.
And so Srila Prabhupada put us on the street to chant and to distribute His books and His prasadam and He placed us into responsible positions way before we knew how to act in this way. How do you learn to swim? You will be thrown into the water. How do you learn to pray? You will be thrown into a situation where you have to. So the pioneers of Krsna consciousness grew fast and strong. The learning process was conducted by listening and practicing. Not just by conducting academic studies as it is occasionally customary today. In absence of practice Krsna consciousness becomes a mere academic exercise of those who simply grow in pride, collecting theoretical information only.
Even being put into the preaching field, there is still place to implement, often unconsciously, our own needs. Even the teacher may repeat faithfully, still his motivation doesn’t have to be entirely pure. But by preaching faithfully, his hidden motives based on deep-rooted desires dwelling in his heart will be exposed and one by one eradicated. The superior taste of faithful preaching will purify the lower taste of those who attempt to save the conditioned souls from their ignorance. By eliminating ignorance of others one becomes enlightened oneself. As Bhaktisiddhanta maharaja said to Srila Prabhupada, “this preaching will be good for you and also for others.”
Srila Prabhupada, being the pure media for Krsna’s desire, being "one in desire" with the Lord, demonstrated what the result of such a preaching can be. But to serve Krsna purely with mind, body and words can only be when the desire is pure. It is a gradual process for most of us.
Nevertheless, here few warnings on the way, how, even in most subtle way, a preacher can be conditioned by his inherent desires. By getting the most powerful weapon, sastra, he cans transmit the sastra to the conditioned souls in most suitable or in most inappropriate way. (Sastra means weapon and scripture as well.)
A preacher, still subtly conditioned by his body and the resultant karma and guna he acts upon, can be motivated while preaching in following way.
| The guilty one | will focus on forgiveness. |
| The cold hearted one | will focus on love. |
| The one afraid of his personal identity | will focus on personalism. |
| The lusty one | will focus on females. |
| The motherly affection seeking one | will focus on elderly females. |
| The hungry one | will focus on prasadam. |
| The lonely one | will focus on social issues. |
| The inferiority traumatized one | will focus on fools. |
| The fearftable of being exposed one | will claim to be transcendental to varnashrama structure. |
| The simple minded one | will focus on academic issues. |
| The black bodied one | will focus on intellectual superiority to the white bodied ones. |
| The Indian bodied one | will focus on to demonstrate to the mlecha westerners his spiritual heritage. |
…and so on, and so on.
Finally birds of the same feather will flock together and so in search of the confirmation of one’s dormant desires a congregation of sympathizers is created. It depends how far such a congregation may carry the blessings of the original acharya and prevail while getting gradually purified from its compromised performance, or it may be already so perverted by its egocentric motivations that it will dwindle away, finally disintegrating due to disunity of further mutating material desires.
Only those who will more and more become tools in Krsna’s workshop, entirely freed from their preferences and agendas, may become effective in their preaching attempts, leaving behind generations of self-conscious and Srila Prabhupada-mission-conscious devotees who can carry on the mission to the future generations of vaisnavas. The numbers of followers are not important, the quality is. Even one selfless fully surrender moon can lighten up the whole dark sky, making the glitter of the other narcissistic stars being more of decorative nature.