Rare is the enlightened soul, so very rare, indeed. Most are mixing worldliness with spirituality, including the most famous preachers of the Vedanta in the West.
Audience taste need not alter the tenor of teaching of the Vedanta. What it really exposes is the levity of the preacher and his mental association with the worldly thoughts to which he alludes in illustrating an abstruse Vedantic point, the allusion very often being unnecessary and the manner of its delivery rather uncalled for. Suiting audience taste and, so, diluting the intensity of delivery of the spiritual message is counterproductive and need not be indulged in. No wonder Sri Ramakrishna said that without the divine commission it is futile preaching spirituality to people and the preacher makes a mockery of his sermon in speaking gibberish.
The speakers referred to by this author here obliquely are not doing so bad a job as the Master alluded to but are sure wanting in personality-gravity which would lend weight to their discourses. Undue levity interspersing the interpretation of abstruse texts may sure raise laughter and lighten the burden of understanding the philosophical content therein but it certainly deflects direction of the collective audience-mind as well, distracts attention, lowers the concentration level of the listeners and ruins the possibility of a deeper insight into the reality spoken of. Hence, the preacher must be more restrained in delivery of his discourse for maximising audience attention at the deepest level possible for planting the seeds of the Vedanta where they will sprout into saplings and grow into gigantic banyans in the fullness of time. Such an opportunity must not go abegging in trivialising discourse in the bid to cater to worldliness to which the audience is accustomed to. Let the pristine philosophy of the Vedanta shine in its own glory without worldly pollution at all.
Written by Sugata Bose
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