Tattva-viveka
contemporary preaching?
Guru-nistha Das - December 25, 2007 4:39 pm
Maybe a new preaching tactic to the Gaudiyas. 
http://enews.earthlink.net/article/nat?gui...71225-396124920
Zvonimir Tosic - December 25, 2007 9:16 pm
Maybe a new preaching tactic to the Gaudiyas.
http://enews.earthlink.net/article/nat?gui...71225-396124920
This was funny, thanks!
But, on the other hand, I quite understand the priest. He's performing in a quite unique way because it's is very hard to penetrate people's minds today.
Modern western man has become a marketing-fed homo economicus and to penetrate his mind, you have to be very smart and have very unusual approach. In a way, you need to outsmart the other marketing and advertising guys who made him such a man.
As a part of the printing side at my work, there's a an advertising agency and I was assisting them many times in solving production problems. Many hours we've spent analyising what will work best in printed communication and which approach will amaze the customer first, to see the uniqueness of your attempt.
And the best answer is to say: you need to "de-market" people's mind for a moment. Acquire some unusual approach that slips under the radars and protective shields, because those are equipped in every modern individual. Those devices protect ourselves in fact, filtrating more than 99% of the rubbish coming through the radio, TV, newspapers, Internet, etc. On the other hand, because shields are working all the time, people are also experiencing serious problems under the shields. Sun rays don't penetrate them so often. Often will sincere and nice gestures be observed as an attack.
However, in order to de-market people for a moment, humor and sincerity still work best because they're so rare! The owner of the agency is a former president of the Australian Marketing Institute, and he concurs. It's so rare; many believe that when you approach someone you have to cheat him/her somehow, lie about your true intentions, because it's very common approach today. But that's wrong; the opposite works best. Frank, sincere and non-imposing humorous approach can open people better than anything else.
So, this clown confirms it; his approach actually works.
I was also thinking, and don't take me wrong in this one, one of the reasons that Srila Prabhupada has succeeded in the west was that: the uniqueness of the parafernalia and the look and feel of Hare Krishna people. And Srila Prabhupada's honesty, simplicity. That was something completely new (especially after the cold war) that captured people's minds, and also, world was not yet as fed with all sorts of different marketing and advertising approaches as it is today, 40 years after.
And once Prabhupada was gone, whoever tried to lure in more people in KC and was doing it deceitfully, or treated people inside in such way, did it all wrong because apart from paraphernalia, the important thing was missing: true sincerity.
Of course, someone can say this is a mundane description of the divine mercy in work. This also imposes another question: would Srila Prabhupada succeed today same as he did 40 years ago?
It's hard to answer that, but I can say, the timing was great. Krishna Consciousness was brought here in the west, and 30 years after some digestion and life in the west, we've got Internet too (and the story behind WWW's development is quite intriguing as well), which can literally surpass all traditional communication obstacles and bring Krishna nama into every home. Bring in more sincerity. Our shields at home and somewhat at rest, and thus this form of communication is very promising in approaching poeple, I believe, but only if it's sincere and direct as Sanga Q&A is.
Thank you for this inspiring post.
Ys, Z.
Syamasundara - December 25, 2007 11:31 pm
It's hard to answer that, but I can say, the timing was great. Krishna Consciousness was brought here in the west, and 30 years after some digestion and life in the west, we've got Internet too (and the story behind Web's development is quite intriguing as well!), which can literally surpass all traditional communication obstacles and bring Krishna nama into every home.
Thank you for this inspiring post.
Ys, Z.
When I see SP's videos now I usually freak out at certain answers he would give journalists, scientists and religionists. Your question is hard to answer, because you would have to deprabhupadaize SP. To begin with, he'd be over 100 now, so it would have to be some other indian acarya coming to the West, who was born in the 40s.
If your question is would SP succeed with the language and methods he used, we cannot ignore the cultural background he came from, so it seems that SP was custom made for the time he belonged to, both as far as India and America.
If your question is would a gaudiya acarya succeed spreading KC in the West now, that there is so much variety on the market, well we all know the answer. He started Tattva Viveka.
Zvonimir Tosic - December 26, 2007 12:04 am
When I see SP's videos now I usually freak out at certain answers he would give journalists, scientists and religionists. Your question is hard to answer, because you would have to deprabhupadaize SP. To begin with, he'd be over 100 now, so it would have to be some other indian acarya coming to the West, who was born in the 40s.If your question is would SP succeed with the language and methods he used, we cannot ignore the cultural background he came from, so it seems that SP was custom made for the time he belonged to, both as far as India and America.
If your question is would a gaudiya acarya succeed spreading KC in the West now, that there is so much variety on the market, well we all know the answer. He started Tattva Viveka.
I totally agree.