Sometimes there is a tendency among devotees (mostly new ones) to make a heavy distinction between “us” (members of ISKCON) and “them” (non-members of ISKCON commonly reffered to as karmis or demons). Prabhupada very clearly explains the difference between the two groups in the following purport:

Actually there are two kinds of occupations. One occupation, in the material world, is sense gratification, and the other occupation is spiritual activity — to satisfy the Lord by His glorification. Those who engage in sense gratification are called demons, and those who spread the glorification of the Lord or satisfy the transcendental senses of the Lord are called demigods.
sb.3.22.2

While it is necessary to have this sense of discrimination that I should be associating with this person for my spiritual well-being whereas I should be giving this person my association for their spiritual well being, I think it is imperative to understand the proper mood by which to make these distinctions. Having a negative, hateful attitude towards non-devotees is beneficial for no one. Of course we have to feel some sort of disdain for sense gratification to affirm why we made the choice to fight against sensual urges and attempt to pursue self realization.  Yet at the same time we need to always be in the mood of compassion, in the mood of wanting to bring everyone out of the dark well of material life and into the blissful realm of Krishna consciousness.  In the words of Jesus, “hate the sin not the sinner.”

In order to do this we must have compassion and the transcendental vision to understand this person is a spirit soul, a former inhabitant of Goloka Vrndavan who due to taking a turn down the wrong path has come here and lost their way back home.  We have to be willing to look past the externals of the situation. LIke when we are out on sankirtan and approach someone who is drunk, or smoking, or not-very conservatively dressed, or is eating something abominable etc. Instead of condemning this person we have to focus on whatever good we see in them even if its just the fact they are a spirit soul and try and help them get back on the right path. We have to hate the disease this person has yet love the diseased in the sense of wanting to bring them back to health.

I’m not speaking this because I have fully realized or practice this, but merely because I am aspiring to do this and can attest to the benefits of one doing this. Vaishnava compassion has touched my life in many ways. The first example I ever saw of this sort of compassion and unconditional love was from my beloved Spiritual Master.

When I came to this movement, I was not very clean in my habits. I had 3 out of the 4 regulative principles down, but the no intoxication one did not sit well with my lifestyle. I was a hippy, what can I say? As a member of the counter culture generally speaking intoxication, especially ingesting hallucinogenics, was seen as a path towards enlightenment, towards opening doors which are once opened can never again be closed. I do believe that these experiences led me to where I am today in the sense of making me fed up with material life, to understand that drugs don’t lead to any permanent realizations or spiritual elevation  and to open my mind up to hear other viewpoints and seek ancient knowledge in sacred texts. Is it a pre-requisite for anyone coming to Krishna consciousness to go down the experimental path which I traversed?  Absolutely not. In fact I wish I had some idea of what moderation was at the time and could have understood the adverse affects ingesting these substances have on ones physcological well-being in the future.

Anyway the point is that even though at the time of my beginning to chant Hare Krishna and read Srila Prabhupada’s books I did not even think of marijuana as an intoxicant it was just part of the daily life right beside eating and sleeping,  still my spiritual master encouraged me to practice Krishna consciousness. He never told me , ” You’re nonsense, you must give this up to be a devotee.”  No doubt he made me aware of the regulative principles and encouraged me to come up to proper standard but, never did he condemn me or my behavior. By his love and his guidance, he made me want to come up to the proper standard. I wanted to please him.

I still remember one thing he said about my drug use namely, ” this  is not required for spiritual advancement” . He also relayed that by doing this I am calling death very near. Never did he bring out the fifth canto and tell me , “if you continue to do this you are going to go straight to Hell and suffer in this way.” He always acted out of compassion and to this day that is what keeps me here. The fact that until meeting His Grace Sriman Sankarshan das Adhikari, I had never experienced real unconditional love, compassion and felt that someone cared for me so much. Its hard to describe but I think perhaps those of us who have taken shelter of another devotee can relate to this feeling and if you haven’t experienced this I encourage you to seek out a devotee and take shelter so you will know what I am talking about. One simple way to do that is to go to www.backtohome.com and experience first hand that which I have.

Anyway the point of my writing this is really just to say that we have to spread the love which has brought us here to where we are today. We have to learn to see everyone as “future devotees” as  His Grace Vaisesika Prabhu and countless others have show us by their example.

Hare Krishna.