Questions and Answers Part 2

Sometimes Prabhupada would be blunt:  “This is not a very intelligent question.”  “Are all your devotees pure devotees?  How many pure devotees are there on the planet now?”  Prabhupada replied, “This is not a very intelligent question.”

Other questions were too challenging:

“Why don’t you send your missionaries to Muslim countries instead of preaching in India?”

“Do you accept Jesus as Lord?”

“You don’t seem to give many teachings about health.  Why is that?”

Prabhupada could see the motive behind questions, but he always entered the breach to give the Vaisnava conclusion.

Sometimes questions were too personal.  “Are you happy?”  Prabhupada replied, “If I told you ‘yes’, would you believe me?”  Prabhupada was expert at not getting trapped by questions and being able to turn them around to put the question back on the person who asked it. 

Prabhupada was especially exposed to challenges, and both sincere and insincere questions in public lectures.  Over the years he had heard practically everything there was to hear.  It wasn’t possible to shock him.  Prabhupada was responsive to intelligent, sincere questions.  Like Sukadeva Gosvami who became more enthusiastic to speak due to the intelligent questions of Maharaj Pariksit, so Prabhupada appreciated solid inquiries. 

One time someone asked him, “In Nectar of Devotion it says you shouldn’t wear red clothes before the deities.  Why is that?”  Prabhupada said in his reply, “There’s a reason why you shouldn’t wear red, but if I reply to your question by saying you shouldn’t wear red because it says so in the scriptures, is that all right?”  Prabhupada always gave the most substantial reply according to time, place and person.  Prabhupada was instructing us not just by answering our questions, but by demonstrating by his own responses what was important information for us to know.  He taught us that the important inquiries were based on service and surrender.  In this way, he taught us that our sometimes flimsy questions were missing the point and he uncovered for us our very elementary grasp of Krishna conscious philosophy.