How do we develop taste for studying scripture?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you very much. How do we overcome the tendency to want to just relax and watch a movie instead of taking up scripture and doing study? We should be doing everything as a duty but is it possible to do things without getting pleasure in them? Answer? No.
We are pleasure seeking individuals and pleasure is a part of our innate nature. So it’s not that we can or that we are meant to live without pleasure but we also along with our pleasure seeking propensity we also have intelligence and that intelligence enables us to choose among different kinds of pleasures to choose long term pleasures rather than short term pleasures. So watching a movie may give us some titillation for some time but how much inner enrichment, growth, how much long term purification of happiness is going to be offered to us practically nothing.
So that’s why if we use our intelligence then we can choose between different kinds of pleasures and studying scripture and understanding philosophy understanding the meaning of life, getting the conviction to pursue the purpose of life. Now all this purifies us and all this eventually brings us to the supreme pleasure in life. We get connected with Krishna in sincere devotion and that gives us the highest happiness.
So this requires some patience and purification and during that period how do we move forward? Yes. For that it is good to even within the circle of duty find out where it intersects with the circle of satisfaction or taste. That means if you have these two circles, one is the circle of duty the circle of satisfaction by doing that I get the satisfaction.
So studying scripture if we do it in the association of devotees if we do it in a way that we find satisfying. So many devotees may find just reading books alone difficult. Then they can read books and hear some classes.
That’s why we have this Bhakti Shastra course or coming in the association of devotees and hearing live classes. That is also a form of scriptural study. And so even within the study of books we can study in different ways.
We can study a little bit and discuss with somebody or we can study something and maybe write some brief notes on it or reflect on it. So we have to find out in our own way how we can gain some satisfaction in study. That is not selfish.
That is simply understanding our individual nature and harmonizing with that nature. So some devotees are of a more intellectual nature and if they are more intellectual then they may need more intellectually satisfying presentations of philosophy to satisfy. Others may be of a less intellectual nature and they may find the things that are too intellectual as just exhausting or this causes too much stress on the mind.
And they may find that some other presentations of the philosophy are more palatable in their mission. So we have Shastra but the Shastra is expounded, explained in different ways by different spiritual teachers and even within the parampara, within Krishna Krishna consciousness movement we have different teachers present in different ways. So often the lack of taste in Shastra is just due to a lack of habit.
That means if we just with some determination keep pursuing scriptural study diligently for a few days at least for a few weeks, for a few months then we find that we will get a taste in it. And especially it’s important that we use Shastra. Use Shastra means after we hear something, maybe we discuss something with some other devotees, speak some point or in our own life try to concentrate, oh I heard this and now I can apply this over there.
So when we see the connection between what we are studying and how we are living and we see how it is practically beneficial then that also acts as an impetus for us to study. So if it deepens our remembrance of Krishna, it deepens our wisdom in living through, going through life then all that is also extremely helpful. So therefore by first of all using our intelligence to understand that we need pleasure but we can’t choose long term pleasures by using our intelligence and persevere even when they don’t provide immediate pleasure, eventually a lot of pleasure is going to come.
And even when we are going through the process of purification that time we try to find the circle of intersection between the circle of duty the points of area of intersection between the circle of duty and the circle of satisfaction and then also even when there is no immediate pleasure if we just focus on the utility of what we are learning, utility in terms of our own proper going through in life our own discussions with other devotees when we find it useful then that also gives us an impetus and overall if we just keep developing a habit going through, soon taste will develop. The nature of the mind is that it will expose to something again and again धयातो विष्टेनान कुमसा संगस्तेशु पजायत over a period of time it will develop attraction for it so just continue it as a habit and just as a habit sometimes people develop a taste for things which they may have never read earlier. For example some people say they go from India to America and they start reading baseball news over there and then they may end up becoming baseball fans just looking forward for every news that is there on baseball.
Let’s just have habitual exposure so actually if something which is unconnected with our core self, with us as souls you can develop so much attraction to that just by habitual exposure then something which is intrinsically connected with us as souls Krishna is most intimately connected with us नमाई मांख्षो जीवे लोके because Krishna is intimately connected with us so if we try to expose ourselves regularly to Krishna conscious scripture and Krishna conscious study then surely attraction to Him will develop and taste in study