Here is a video footage of Vijay Prabhu dealing with a Christian. We harbor no ill feelings towards our Christian brothers and sisters, but the fact is that when we go out to distribute books we sometimes meet Christians whose sole goal is to distract us from our mission and to dissolve our determination. I think you will find this video instructive.
Is this the standard way that book distributors deal with Christians? It worries me that Vijay said “don’t waste time with Christians.” I would be able to understand that reaction if the young student had been confrontational or rude in any way. I hope that the true mission of ISKCON is to bring everyone to Krishna consciousness, even those who may be averse to the idea. I understand that many people are probably very hostile when approached by a book distributor. I know it’s not easy. I would just like to ask if it’s a standard attitude within ISKCON to not waste time with Christians, or any group of people, for that matter. Thank you.
There is no standard way of “dealing with Christians.” I can’t speak for Vijay Prabhu, but I have the same attitude when going out to distribute books. My time is very limited and I want to distribute as many books as possible to as many people as possible. For that reason I always look for people who are receptive and are not there just to ask tons of questions, eat up my time, and walk away without buying a book. In 15 years of book distribution, over 99% of Christians I met were either outright rude or were polite only to the extend they thought could change my mind. They were not there for a democratic conversation. But, when going out to distribute books, I avoid “democratic” conversations as well. My mission there is to pass out as many books as possible. I engage in “democratic” conversations at some other times. Also, it takes a laser-like concentration to distribute books. It takes that kind of intensity and preciseness to interrupt the flow of material desires and aspirations of the conditioned souls in order to distribute them a few Krishna conscious books.
Uplander, if you try to distribute books every day for a week, you will see what I am referring to.
Also, please note that Vijay was quite polite, but fixed in his mission. Such an art.
Hope this helps.
Yes, I see that he was polite. “Don’t waste time with Christians,” however, seems to be a testament to how he was really feeling about the student, which was completely different than the politeness he was showing while the student stook in front of him.
I also understand that many Christians are difficult to deal with, to say the least, and it’s almost impossible to change the mind of a Christian, no matter what you do. It is possible sometimes though, since I am a former member of the Episcopal church and now do not consider myself to be a Christian at all. I’m reading this website, eh?
Also, many people who attend Christian churches are very progressive and open minded, and practice more of what I call an eclectic form of spirituality, incorporating practices like yoga, chanting and other kinds of meditation in their practice. So please don’t write anyone off, especially if he/she is not being rude or confrontational.
Thanks for responding.
The idea is not to write anyone off. Rather, the goal is to be efficient. Personally, if I detect a sign of interest in the person I am talking to, I give him/her my time. If not, I move on. All Iskcon temples and other establishments are always open to all who seek. That is Iskcon’s policy. It also the policy of book distributors to not waste time with people who will not buy books.
If you carefully watch the video, you will see that the Christian, although polite, flatly refused to even look at the book. He did what almost all Christians do when you meet them: he asked a few questions to get you into a conversation, but only to get his sermon out to you. Anyone who knows how to distribute books would carefully avoid a fellow like the one in the video. No ill feelings, just being practical.
I see what you’re sayiing. Thanks again.
I feel the need to clarify something though. I said in my earlier comment that I do not consider myself to be a Christian at all. That’s a bit of an overstatement. I am a lot of things. Not relevant to this discussion, but I wanted to correct myself. Hare Krishna!
For a while he was saying that the Bible and Bhagavad-gita have so much in common, but then when he was asked if he believes everything in the Bible, he sent the guy away. Why not just be honest from the beginning and say that both scriptures recommend cultivating devotion to God but that Bhagavad-gita presents details that make much more sense? If the visitor didn’t like that, he would’ve left after two minutes instead of four, or perhaps more likely he would have stuck around to hear how the Bhagavad-gita is superior.
He sent the guy away when he realized who the guy was, not because of what the guy said.
I think the exchange was efficient minus the final comment. Tabling vs. Actively trying to hand out information is different in many aspect as you open yourself up to dialogue when you are stationary. I’ve worked for several advocacy groups and understand the need to be efficient with time, however it was slightly off putting to hear it said in such a tone that did not seem to be in alignment to the exchange that happened. This post should also not be titled “how to deal with christians” as it gave nothing as far what could be said in an exchange. Everytime we speak to someone about the glory of our connection to this path we have a chance to meet someone on common ground, inform, and share… is this not more important than just handing out a million books and changing no minds? Perhaps placing some common response/counter response information vs this video would be more helpful.
Alex, the final comment was for the viewers, and I find it very instructive. See my responses to Uplander. It is a simple fact, something that every book distributor knows: When you meet a Christian, he/she is simply going to eat up your time. Nothing else will come out of it.
Sure, many things would be more helpful, but we happened to have this video and have purposefully titled it “How to deal with Christians.” The lesson is: “Don’t even enter the conversation. You are going to simply waste your time!!!!!!!!!”
Yes, it is important to meet people on common grounds, but that’s valid only for people who are interested in a dialog, not a monolog, which is the case with 99.99999% Christians. You obviously don’t distribute books. Otherwise you would very much identify with the message of this video. Just accept it from one who has been doing this service for over 30 years.
Imho, the best is to invite the Christian to the temple for a talk or give him one’s email and apologize for the time being. If he shows up or writes, it’ll prove he’s serious – either about converting or about learning.
I’ve asked several Christian preachers who objected against bhaktiyoga: “List differences between Vaisnava and Christian tradition. For every difference I’ll give two similarities.” So far none accepted this ‘challenge’.
All the best. Hari Hari
ys Jan
Vijaya Prabhu is an expert book distributor and very charming. His experience in life is quite broad and I think he handled that student very well. One of the reasons for his statement at the end, is that Christians, tend to be very weak in faith and theology, therefore, they wear their emotions on their sleeves. They become argumentative and combative, without any scholarly backgound. Typically they do not know how to have an enriching dialogue in which both sides can appreciate and share. Their defensive behavior stems from a lack of knowledge, and very fragile faith.
Vrindavan Prabhu, so glad to hear from you. It’s been a long time. Hope you are well.
I know, I know folks. This is not a place for socializing, but couldn’t resist saying a few words to an old devotee friend.
He did a great job not taking the debate hook.
That is the general mistake that is made, the temptation to debate, especially in regards when one is confronted with a person who does not have a strong philosophy.
Hi I am a devotee of many years standing, and I have written a book called, ‘The Bible Betrayed.’ The book is on biblical archaeology and how biblical archaeologists have betrayed the bible by faultily reconstructing the core biblical arena and this reconstruction error is reason archaeological evidence for the Bible cannot be found. The book goes on to identify exactly where the real Promised Land was situated and is replete with textual proofs.
If preachers are interested, they could buy some copies and use it for preaching. The books are internationally available in online stores like Amazon, target and B&N. I believe that a book from a devotee on such a subject will aid in preaching to Christians students especially to students majoring in biblical studies (such as the student in the video), biblical archaeology, Egyptology, and Near Eastern Archaeology.
Hare Krsna
Jeevanmukta Das
The link to my website is: http://www.thebiblebetrayed.com
The link to Amazon where you can buy my book is: http://www.amazon.com/Bible-Betrayed-scholars-misplaced-obscured/dp/8190641824/
One technique for avoiding wasting time with Christians that I use is that I keep a stack of Christian vegetarian pamphlets (my favorite is put out by ChristianVeg.org, but Peta also has one). A Christian hippie named “Star” always gives me as many of these pamphlets as I want for free.
When I see that a person is not capable of getting one of Srila Prabhupada’s books because of a triumphalist Christian attitude, I very respectfully say, “For our Christian friends we have these Christian pamphlets”. They usually just take them, see that it is indeed Christian and based on the Bible, are satisfied, and leave us to our business.
Clearly, Vijaya was instructing us to not waste time with Christians because this is an essential skill for any book distributor, and Vijaya is making this video to train book distributors.
I am sure Vijay has sold many, many books to open-minded Christians. The point is not to avoid all Christians. If they are open and capable of two-way communication it is not a waste of time. As he says in the video, he has distributed Gitas to priests.
The point is not to waste time once the book distributor realizes that the particular person has come there simply to try to argue about how his own Christian path is superior. The book distributor has an important mission to fulfill, and such conversations do nothing to advance that mission. As Vijay said, we cannot waste time in that way.
One time in LAX, I met a well-dressed older man who was having a nice conversation with me. Then he said, “I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ” or something, and I thought, “Here is another chauvinist come to waste my time.” So I just turned on my heel and approached someone else. Later Praghosa Prabhu chastised me. He said, “I just sold that man a Bhagavad-gita for $10, and he complained that you abruptly stopped talking after he said he was a Christian.”
The point is, not all Christians are a waste of time, and the book distributor needs to sound each person out, as Vijaya did in this instructive video. Once it became clear that this student’s only interest was to have a Bible-based argument to satisfy his own ego, Vijay politely declined to waste his time in such a pointless discussion. He did give the kid a chance at first, and he cut it off at the right point.