Scientific Preaching

Dear All,

I had the great fortune of being with H.G. Chaitanya Charan Prabhu (August 01, 2007) when he was instructing us on the topic of “Scientific Preaching”. Here is a write-up on the main points from that lecture.

A kanishta adhikari is one who sees God only in the temple. But a madhyama adhikari sees the relationship with Krishna as omnidirectional, i.e. every activity he can see as connected to Krishna. Without such knowledge, materialistic people are engaged in what is called “ugra-karma”. Bhagavad Gita 16.8-9 describes “ugra karma”. Its characteristics are that it is (i) at best unbeneficial, and (ii) at worst destructive. Moreover, in the modern society, such work is considered progressive.

Srila Prabhupada used to say that we want to change the way people think!

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Why Preach Scientifically?

[1] As an expression of love for Krishna. To counter blasphemy.

How we react to atheistic scientific theories also affects our own spiritual progress! We can see how Srila Prabhupada openly challenged atheistic scientific theories. Why? Because if one really has bhakti, he will naturally want to strongly challenge the atheistic theories.

In this connection Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Prabhupada used to say that those who criticize the devotees for criticizing the blasphemers are themselves on the kanishta platform.

[2] To counter the strong intellectual hostility against God

In today’s world, spirituality is either downplayed or totally denied. Srila Prabhupada found that the main reason for this was the Darwin’s Theory of evolution. By preaching scientifically, we want to create a favorable situation for preaching Krishna Consciousness. Once Darwinism is defeated, Krishna Consciousness will really flourish!

Srila Prabhupada was not interested in preaching only to disillusioned hippies or peasants who do not know anything about the materialistic way of life. On the contrary, he was interested in preaching to those who strongly propagated the materialistic way of life!

[3] To remove the misconceptions from people’s minds about the existence of soul and God.

The misconceptions about the existence of the soul and God ultimately lead to the situation described in Bhagavad Gita verse 16.8. It creates atheists who say that the world is unreal, without a Supreme controller God, has come by chance, and has only one purpose – sex enjoyment. The atheistic philosophy thus leads to the understanding that sense gratification is the goal of life.

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This kind of scientific preaching is not non-devotional. H. H. Bhakti Tirtha Swami Maharaj defines a preacher as one who removes the obstacles between the conditioned soul and Krishna. One such great obstacle is the doubts created in the mind by modern science. We have to prove that science does not point in the direction of atheism.

Yours in the service of Krishna,
Abhijit.