"If
we disturb or offend devotees, we cannot be successful in what we do, no matter how important it is."
When I was serving in Ireland, around year 2000, with few devotees, we went on a travelling party. Some were selling
paintings, some were selling books while some chanted on the street. The leader
of the party came to meet two others at a set time in the evening.
Since the
paintings went well, he was in a hurry to go back, but he wanted to bring two
somewhat tired devotees to a place where they would spend the night and recover from an intense day.
The
leader was somewhat insistent that they hurry up and enter the car and pack
things up, etc. They were not disturbed by his rushing mood since he wanted to
go back and sell more paintings. Most of
the money of the collections goes to develop the temple projects.
Next
morning he apologized to the other two
devotees for being insensitive. He said that if we disturb or offend devotees
we cannot be successful in what we do, no matter how important it is.
