How can intellectually inclined devotees engage themselves in devotional service?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Question, if a devotee is intellectually inclined, then what are the ways that the intellectual tendency can be engaged in devotional service? Answer, the first and foremost engagement is in personal application.
In the sadhaka stage, we need the intelligence to understand the glory of devotional service and the futility of everything else, especially of material life that is constantly alluring us. And by that intelligence, we can stay fixed in devotional service. evam buddheh param buddhva samsthabhyatmanam atmana jahishatrum mahabaho kamarupam durasadam Krishna says, evam buddheh param buddhva, by intelligence situate oneself on the spiritual platform.
So, determination develops by deliberation and devotion. So, deliberation, contemplating seriously is easier for those who have intellectual tendencies. So, in general, if you are intellectually oriented, we often are more interested in intellectually processing things than in practically applying things.
So, that is a temptation which we need to carefully avoid by making sure that we use the intelligence to apply the principles of Krishna consciousness in our own lives. And after that, we also need intellectually challenging and fulfilling engagements. And there are opportunities for that.
In general, the opportunities will fall in four broad categories. One can become a speaker. One can become a writer.
One can become a editor and one can become a scholar or a researcher. So, teacher, there are charismatic crowd pulling leaders in our movement who can attract a lot of people. But often when there is a lot of lot of people attracted, then the content also has to be presented in a way that is entertaining.
And then the content is often not educational. So, often most classes tend to either to largely entertain or instruct or inspire. But classes that actually educate, that philosophize, that analyze are very few.
And we need educators in our movement. So, those devotees who are seriously intellectually inclined, they can study scripture systematically and plan to become teachers. So, we have Bhakti Shastri, Bhakti Vaibhava courses and devotees can plan in such a way that they can become teachers for structured courses.
So, that way one will get the opportunity to study seriously and then also get the forum by which one can present serious Shastra. Because those people who enroll for such courses are not just interested in entertainment, generally speaking, they want to study systematically. So, that is the first avenue as teachers for systematic teaching of Shastra.
Then second could be as writers. So, if we have a literary tendency where we like words, we like to write, then that is a very valuable service. In fact, our movement is currently having an acute shortage of writers.
I am editor for BTG, both India and international. And I know how the chief editor in both cases struggles to get good quality articles for every issue of the magazine. So, back to Godhead is Shilprabhupada’s magazine and it is extremely important that it be maintained at the best possible quality.
And the quality of magazine largely depends on the articles that are provided. So, those devotees who have literary tendencies, they can make a starting aim of contributing to BTG and start submitting articles. And I have written several articles about writing in devotional service.
And they can also act as a reference. So, writing is a very important service. And few things force us to think as seriously about the truths of Krishna consciousness as writing does.
It can be a very fulfilling service if we can get a taste and ability for writing. And a forum by which we can reach the writing out to others. And now with social media coming up and the prevalence of Internet, there is a lot of scope for writing coming up again because text messaging is important.
Of course, these require not abstruse or profound writings, but representations of the writings in contemporarily appealing terms. So, writing is a very important service. And third could be as editor.
So, there are many devotees who are writing books, many senior devotees. And if one can work as an editor for those devotees, that means one needs to have, actually even this will require very good English skills. So, one can do proofreading and that is starting wise.
And then later on, one can go on even to substance editing, where one can actually use based on one’s understanding, use inputs about how a book can be better restructured, better rearranged, how things can be clarified. So, actually editors are very much needed. And editing is a way by which we can get association of many senior devotees.
I have personally got the association of many sanyasis and leaders in our movement since the early days of my Krishna consciousness because I served them as editors. So, that kind of close association is very difficult to get. But if we have the literary skills, if we have good knowledge of grammar and punctuation and the ability to see the flow and continuity and the coherence and cogency of arguments, then we can be of tremendous service as editor.
And Srila Prabhupada told Jayadvait Maharaj who was his editor that whatever you have learned, teach that to others. So, Jayadvait Maharaj often conducts editing courses for those devotees who aspire to be editors. Now, when I’m talking about these two fields of writing and speaking, I’m not restricting myself to English.
This is also required for the various languages in which Krishna consciousness is being spread through the vernacular medium also. And this is also required for Sanskrit. So, that brings me to the fourth point of scholarship.
So, scholars, now these categories are not necessarily discreet. Now, teacher can also be a writer. A writer can also be an editor.
But the emphasis is different. A teacher self identifies as a teacher and for the sake of teaching may prepare some notes. Anyway, some books are prepared.
The books are more valued for their compilatory and pedagogical value. Pedagogical means for the sake of help of teaching and not so much for their literary aesthetic appeal. A writer, on the other hand, focuses more on the contemporary presentation using good language, using figures of speech, literary devices.
And basically the writer is one who delights in writing. So, when I talk about scholar, now certainly a speaker also has to be a scholar to some extent. A writer has to be a scholar.
They have to know. But when I’m talking about a scholar, the focus is primarily study research. So, the person identifies oneself not so much as a speaker or writer, but as more of a serious researcher.
And then naturally as a result of the research, writings will come about. But those writings are not so much again of literary value, but they are of profound research value. Some of our great Acharyas have combined all these skills.
Jigar Goswami was not just a researcher. For example, based on research he wrote books like Shatrath Sandarbha. So, that was the scholarly books.
The focus is primarily on compilation, rigorous argumentation and systematic presentation. But then he also wrote books like Gopal Champu, which are filled with so many literary devices, such beautiful illuminating metaphors and other figures of speech. Gopal Champu is also a scholarly book, but it is primarily a very appealing literary masterpiece also.
So, scholars are those who primarily want to study scripture and do research and then make presentations based on it. Presentations can be papers and conferences. So, in being a scholar also one will have to write, but the focus is primarily on scholarship, not on the writing.
Writing is a tool to further the scholarship. Speaking is also a tool to further the scholarship. So, now scholarship is possible in many fields.
Srila Prabhupada started Bhakti Vahana Institute not just for scientific outreach, but he wanted it to be a vehicle for all kinds of scholarly outreach. So, if some devotees are interested in science, then they can consult senior devotees who are in the field of science and under their guidance take up an appropriate field for study and specialize in that. Similarly, one can do it for scriptures.
Somebody can become a specialist in Gaudiya Vaishnavism, studying the Acharya’s writing. Somebody else can become a specialist in broad Indian culture and how it was in the past and how it can be preserved and replicated in today’s situations. So, this kind of study is best done within the traditional setting, but when that facility is not there, some devotees may even go into academia, especially in the West, where the academic perception of Hinduism and of Krishna Consciousness shapes the perception of the common people.
Because most common people don’t know anything about Krishna Consciousness. So, when they meet a devotee, the first thing that they do is they will go to Wikipedia or they will open some book and try to find out. And such books are written by scholars in the West.
So, that’s why the opinion of scholars about the tradition is far more important in the West than in India, where this is primarily a living tradition and where people are exposed to the fundamental tenets of Krishna Conscious culture from their early childhood. So, anyway, the academic way of studying scripture has its challenges, has its problems because it is primarily analytical and entirely non-applicational. In fact, scholars are considered to the extent that they don’t get emotionally involved with their subject, they are considered to be good scholars, whereas the purpose of study of scriptures is actually emotional involvement and inner transformation.
So, the approaches for study are very radically different and one has to be in good association, one has to have strong convictions to ensure that one’s faith doesn’t get challenged or damaged or subverted by the study of science or philosophy within an academic setting. But within the traditional setting also, under the guidance of senior devotees and by one’s own inclination, one can study seriously and that way one can become a very valuable asset for perpetuating the intellectual legacy of our tradition. Thank you.