Real Public Relationship Preaching Programme

Already at the first meeting with his spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, by that time a Gandhi activist, when arguing that first one has to establish oneself in a political sense, then one can preach the message of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Srila Prabhupada was deeply impressed by the firm faith in a pure spiritual way to solve problems Bhaktisiddhanta maharaja demonstrated to him.

Indeed, material problems cannot be solved by material means, at least not in a lasting way; rather, such attempts create more problems to come. Only by leaving the material plane and following spiritual directives can one get free from the bondage of three modes of material nature.

And so Srila Prabhupada finally got on the way, and seeing previously his godbrothers adressing “prominent English gentlemen"...with no tangible preaching result, he turned to the US, where he started to preach amongst... hippies. Even though Krsna Consciousness can be embraced by anyone regardless of his age, Srila Prabhupada clearly stated that to really join his movement, “one has to forget EVERYTHING one has ever heard before.” Seeing the hippies dreaming about “something completely different,” Srila Prabhupada saw a fertile preaching field, bringing the real message of what the word “different” really means.

As we see today, even by some ISKCON preachers, the dogma of “being the same” is being propagated, issuing one compliment to the materialistic society after another.
Srila Prabhupada taught us how to bring a truly opposing alternative to the endless struggle of materialists to improve things. Srila Prabhupada looked so different, argued in a way never heard before, moved differently, exhibited spirital power never seen before, changed the lives of so many, and addressed so many from all kinds of ranks of society. He was the ideal PR man without ever institutionalising any programme of this sort.

Srila Prabhupada openly said that if any change in society is attempted, it has to come “from below” and not “from above,” as from "above,” we can only expect hypocrisy, degradation, and cheating. On this occasion, Srila Prabhupada instantly quoted Srimad Bhagavatam, where it is described how the biggest animals are, in a democratic way, selected by smaller animals to be the leaders.

Even great dictators rely on the massive support of mlecha and sudra types of people, constituting the majority of the population. They are experts at brainwashing masses of fools into their doctrines and charming the common man on the street with their empty promises of heightened sense gratification. Preaching is also propaganda, but of another sort, propaganda aiming to make people aware of their true spiritual identity, connecting them to the Supreme, where they can be empowered to a degree they never dreamed about. After all, ALL intelligence, strength, and wisdom come from Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Being connected to Him via His pure representative results in the elimination of ALL the problems we experience daily.

To know we are not the body, we are not the problem, which seems to be the main problem, is already a solution to the problem. The body is ultimately not the problem; our ignorance about our true identity is. That was transcendental logic.
Srila Prabhupada brought it to us.

To think of impressing the leaders of society so they may change is proving again and again to be a futile program. Srila Prabhupada writes in a letter to Damodar Prabhu on December 3, 1971, from Delhi:

“...Generally I don't have much faith in these politicians. They are no more interested for the welfare of the citizens. Simply they want some votes to exploit others. But let us see what can be done.”

It is not that Srila Prabhupada rejected preaching to the „high society of fools“ per se; after all, he was ready to preach to EVERYONE. But he was sceptical. After devotees were disappointed in failing to arrange a personal audience for him with the pope, he responded by telling once again the story of a tiger and a heron:

Once, a tiger approached a heron with a request. After just devouring some animals, a bone got stuck in his throat, and knowing the heron to have a long tal beak, he asked him, “Could you please help me by reaching with your beak into my throat and pulling out the bone?“
The heron answered in a frightened tone, “How could that be possible? How can I stick my head into your throat? You will naturally eat me!”
The tiger argued, “How can I eat you if I rely on your help? And besides that, if you help me, I will give you a blessing.”
That made sense to the heron, and he, with his long beak, very cautiously took the bone out of the tiger's throat.
The tiger felt relieved and turned to face the still-standing heron in front of him.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“Well, sir, you promised me, for my service, a blessing,” answered the heron.
“I already gave you a blessing,” answered the tiger. “I didn't eat you!”

So according to Srila Prabhupada, that much blessing we can get from those who are in power: they may leave us alone. Otherwise, we cannot expect any help, as they live and work in an entirely corrupt system—the system of fraudsters and cheated. This is widely recognised by common people, and preaching to these common people Srila Prabhupada considered a priority. It is here where he started to preach, and it is here that he made his input into society at large. It is for this reason that he stressed the distribution of his books so much, as these books automatically sort out those who may understand at least some portion of them and those who do not understand one word. The books will do the selection between “high society” and “animal society” for us.
It is Srila Prabhupadas books who are the greatest P.R. preachers.
By bowing down to those we should oppose, we will only compromise our preaching.

As one accurate saying goes, “If you bring a clown into a king's palace, it's not that the clown becomes a king. The palace becomes a circus instead.”

There is always a tendency in the conditioned soul to reach for a lower type of consciousness. We saw even wonderful preachers becoming ruined by mingleing too intensly with academic circles, finally being poluted by the mayavada dominating these “intellectuals.” After all, there is no absolute in the universities being tough; everything is relative and can be made to be relative in the same way as there are no principles amongst politicians, as any principle can be “in a pragmatic way” compromised.

And so for those who are principle-minded, learning about the true need and the use of principles from Srila Prabhupada, preaching via book distribution, and taking a personal approach to the common man on the street constitutes the priority. By preaching to cunning politicians and arogant „academic intellectuals,“ one is endangered from becoming one of them instead of becoming one of us. The examples of truly devotional people coming out of political and academic circles are very very few. Often, by becoming devotees, they give up their academic and political careers, as material and spiritual consciousness are incompatible.

Rich, academically educated, successful in a political career—all this doesn't mean to be intelligent in a spiritual sense. Real intelligence means understanding the need to surrender to Krsna and His pure devotees. Whoever understands that is a really educated person and a really influential man.