The purpose of preaching is not just propaganda but also propagation

Propaganda refers to the extensive publicization and aggressive glamorization of an idea for gaining people’s attention. Propagation refers to the effective dissemination of an idea for bringing about among its recipients a transformative assimilation.

The Bhagavad-gita encourages us to share its message by declaring (18.68) that those who do so gain pure devotion and thereafter attain Krishna’s abode. Significantly, this verse urges us share of its message with the devotionally-minded. This focus points to the need among its audience a transformation of the heart or at least the open-mindedness for considering such a transformation. In fact, the Gita has earlier underscored this transformational nature of its message, through its statement (09.02) that its wisdom can be realized and relished by direct experience. The culmination of all knowledge (15.15) is Krishna, the supreme spiritual reality. And he can be known in truth only through the path of devotion (11.5311.54).

So the purpose of sharing Gita wisdom is to fulfill its purpose: to help people know and love Krishna. Accordingly, the essence of preaching the Gita is the propagation of devotion from the speaker to the hearer. This heart-to-heart communication encompasses the head and extends beyond it too. That is, its wisdom offers not just intellectual explanation but also experiential demonstration. Given the metaphysical depth of Gita wisdom in addressing universal questions of life, propaganda about its intellectual glory is desirable, provided it serves the cause of propagation, of inspiring seekers to relish the sweetness of divine love.

When this purpose of propagation is in the center, sharing Gita wisdom rises beyond being an exercise of the intellectual competitiveness or egoistic one-upmanship. It becomes a part of the transmission of divine love from one human heart to another human heart, thus inviting all of humanity into divinity’s eternal embrace of ecstatic love.

Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18 Text 68

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