Islam & Krsna

[Guest guest]

Islam & Krsna

 

BY NARARATNA DAS

 

EDITORIAL, Feb 10 (VNN) — Hare Krsna dear devotees, please accept my

humble obeisences unto you all. All glouries 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 & more so

if you distribute books on the street: Remember; Time-Place-

Circumstances- and your audiences capacity to understand & accept

are always factors to consider with each presentation.

 

1, First please check your mood before you share Krsna con with

anyone. Ask yourself, are you trying to share Krsna con 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 & 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 &

faith of the patient first otherwise the patient will always be too

afraid & tense for the operation to be successful. This is part of

Krsna con, it is not Maya! Yes, it takes alot more time but worth

it. Establishing a relationship based on friendship will open the

door to exchange & acceptence of the higher realisations of Krsna

con & 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 & have me removed

oneway or another! Srila Prabhupada was & is so successful because

he wins your friendship & trust first then you are ready to hear &

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 & Muslims, alot of

bad ones coming from Indian people & even devotees from India

stating "well, the bhavishya purana says this & 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 & senior devotees in

the same field. There was a big devotee who once went on public

radio & 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 veda base.

 

Knowing the philosophy is one thing but having the wrong mood is

something else.

 

We must hear, see & 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 & 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 & 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 upto 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

& 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 upto a Muslim & say "hey, the Bhagavad gita says this & 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 & more devotional

service by speaking through their book (The Holy Koran) using their

words & their understanding gradually bringing them up to the

realizations of the Bhagavad Gita & Srimad Bhagavatam . This is the

way set by Krsna Himself & 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 & 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 & VEDIC KNOWLEDGE)

 

5, ENLIGHTENMENT OF CHAND KAZI. (the teachings of Caitanya

Mahaprabhu to the Muslim leader Chand Kazi)

 

6, KRSNA CONSCIOUNESS & 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 &

word for word.

 

I shall be in Mayapur for the super excellent Gaurapurnim 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.

 

harekrishnaturkey www.harekrishnaturkey.com Thanking you

for your time, hoping you all have a wonderul Gaurapurnim festival &

a happy new year with lots of nice preaching opportunaties helping

seeds blossom into beautiful rose like devotees. Hare Krsna Your

servant Nararatna das.

 

Prabhupada:"Kisi Krishna bilinli hale geldigi zaman herkesi sever.

YŸksek sesle Hare Krsna'yi zikrederseniz, duyan karincalar ve

bšcekler bile kurtulur ŸnkŸ bu ruhsal titresimdir." HARE KRSNA HARE

KRSNA KRSNA KRSNA HARE HARE HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE

HARE...be happy!

 

Srila Prabhupada:"When one becomes Krsna consciousness, he loves

everyone. If you chant loudly Hare Krsna, even the ants & insects

who is hearing, he'll be delivered, because it is spiritual

vibration"

http://www.vnn.org/editorials/ET0602/ET10-8910.html