How can we increase our taste for reading Prabhupada’s books?
Transcript
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Yes. How can we increase our taste for any profile books? Actually, first thing is that we have to slowly and surely just cultivate a habit.
On my website, the spiritualscientist.com, there is a full lecture on purposes, principles, and practices for scriptural study, where I elaborate and discuss this. But primarily, we develop a taste for something when we find its usefulness for us. If somebody gives me a magazine to read about what is happening in Somalia, if I don’t have any relatives in Somalia, if I don’t have anything connected with myself in Somalia, that magazine will not interest me.
But if I have relatives, I have business interests in Somalia, then whatever is happening in Somalia will interest me. So, normally, our taste, our interest is based on seeing the relevance of the subject. So, generally speaking, whenever we read scriptures, we should focus on trying to see the relevance.
So, seeing the relevance means we should think, okay, what is here that I can apply, that can improve my life, that can help me become a better human being, a better devotee. And when we look at the books with this application perspective, we will find so much that is relevant for us in the books. And generally speaking, it is good for us that every time we sit down to read, we make a plan that I will at least have one point to carry home with me.
So, if I have at least one point, then I will be searching while reading, okay, what is the point that I can carry home today. And then at the end of our reading, we have a carry home point, we can have a small diary in which we can note down that point and then look at the point whenever we have a few minutes in the day, a few seconds also, look at it in a pocket diary or recollect it in the mind and then contemplate on it. So, basically a taste is a matter of seeing the connections, seeing the relevance.
And one very powerful way of seeing the relevance is by speaking it with others, sharing it with others according to our understanding. So, if you have some other devotee friends who are also interested in the practice of spiritual life, and you share some points which you have read with others, then that helps a lot in inspiring us to memorize, to remember and internalize the points. So, in general, that is a very simple act, but it forces us to, it forces us in the positive sense to contemplate on the points.
So, in this way, by focusing on trying to see how can I apply this, what can I apply from this in my life, how is it relevant and what can I share with others, by these two simple guidelines, we can dramatically increase our taste for