How to study scriptures – Purposes, Principles and Practices

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

Summary

• The Fourfold Purpose: Scriptural study goes far beyond gathering information—its true goals are heart purification, deep spiritual satisfaction, and genuine realization.

• Shift to Active Reading: Avoid passive reading like a “hog.” Actively engage your intellect by questioning, analyzing, and interacting with the text rather than just letting words pass by.

• Employ Dynamic Study Techniques: Enhance retention and comprehension by underlining key points, rewording passages in your own words, and writing brief reflections or commentaries.

• Memorize for Mental Resilience: Memorizing verses or impactful phrases creates ready-made templates for devotional thought, helping unburden the heart from anxiety and material desires.

• Maintain a Structured Plan: Prevent your reading habits from falling at the mercy of the mind by setting a consistent schedule, pre-reading chapters, and tracking your progress.

• Bridge Study with Service: Scriptures only come truly alive when we put their teachings into practice through devotional service.

Key Takeaways

• Dedicate a distraction-free, scheduled time daily for personal scriptural study rather than relying on ad-hoc reading.

• Use active engagement tools like memorizing short phrases, speaking insights aloud, and rewriting concepts to deepen your connection with the text.

Full Transcription

So today i’ll be speaking on a slightly different topic i’m speaking on how to study scripture it’s a general topic which everybody’s asking to speak on it’s time to speak it for a long time but today because we complete the first section of the bhagavad-gita so before we start off the next the next section we will give a point last to this so i’m going to divide this into three parts purposes principles and practises so purposes is ultimately why are we studying practises is how we are going to study and principles in one sense are the bridges between the wise and the house so they are not entirely practises they’re not entirely purposes also they’re in between so it’s in three parts and i have focused on broad outlines over here because ultimately scriptural study is a matter of individual inspiration so i’ll primarily talk in general terms okay so now let’s look at purposes so the primary purpose of scriptural study is service and that purpose branches out into four different other purposes so we study scripture because that is the way we serve Krishna we study Prabhupada’s books because we want to serve Srila Prabhupada so ultimately our identity is not as jnani is not as jnani is not as scholars it’s as servants servants so now when we are entering the service to Krishna by studying Shastra our service to his devotees by reading their books now we can discuss this it’s what all are we going to get by it one purpose is we want to know more so information is one purpose and along with information there is we also want to get realisation want to deepen our understanding so that it becomes a reality for us and then there is purification and satisfaction so let me discuss each of these one by one i don’t think i have discussed this table before isn’t it so generally speaking in material life the purpose of study is only the first information maybe a little bit more of understanding might be there but actually when we are studying engineering or we are studying medicine it’s not that we are getting the realisations about that it’s primarily information and often our study of scripture if it is driven only by the informational motive it often stays superficial and often unsatisfying because when we look at scripture for the sake of information now if you look at the broad variety of scriptures that are there in the Vedic canon just in the Gaudiya Vaishnava canon itself our Sampradaya has been there for 500 years and in our Gaudiya Vaishnava library itself books written by our Acharyas are more than several thousand so that’s only our Acharyas have written that many books and we will see that apart from that we have prior to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also there are all actually some of the 108 Upanishads, 18 Puranas all of them are prior to that and that is a huge body of knowledge and if we want to go into an informational search mode there is a huge scope that we can go into but Srila Prabhupada did not focus on that so much yet there is some amount of information that is important for us to understand and apply to transform ourselves but beyond that Srila Prabhupada did not go too much into the technicalities of certain things so the informational content so now when we are looking at scripture what do we mean by scripture at a broad level we mean the Vedic scriptures at an immediate level for us scripture is Srila Prabhupada’s books and we may read other books also we may read books by other Iskcon devotees, we may read books by Princess Acharyas but our primary connection with scripture is to Prabhupada’s books so this presentation will focus but not exclusively on Srila Prabhupada’s books so we are talking about when we study Srila Prabhupada’s books there is a lot of information but if information is our primary motive then we miss out on what Srila Prabhupada is actually giving us. Srila Prabhupada is not just coming to give us information he is doing something much much more so now from the information in the next slide I’ll talk about how we move a realisation but realisation what does realisation mean it’s not just understanding it’s something deeper than understanding and I’ll talk about in the next slide let’s move upward first so in scriptural study what happens the primary thing that happens is purification if you look at the Gita Mahapya what does Shankaracharya say over there Gita Ardhyanashilasya he says if you study Bhagavad Gita regularly then actually that is more potent than bathing in the Ganga Gita Ardhyanashilasya he says if you take a bath daily our body gets purified but we have to keep doing it every day but if we can absorb ourselves immerse ourselves bathe ourselves in the wisdom of the Gita what will happen is Samsaram Ardhanashilam so you know if we look at the Gita Mahatmya the glorification that is offered over there is not so much oh there is so much information in the Gita actually what is Shankaracharya glorifying over there now here when Shankaracharya is glorifying Bhagavad Gita he’s actually doing it with his his heart he’s a Vaishnavite heart and he’s glorifying in that mode so what is he saying actually Sarvopmichur Dogdha Gopalananda this is the essence so from the information point of view there is not just expansion but this concentration but then more than that he’s talking about the purification that will result so what do we mean by purification purification is not just an abstract concept purification basically means actually our lower desires go away and our higher nobler desires arise so purification has basically these two aspects our lust anger greed all those go away and our attraction to Krishna our desire to serve devotees our inclination for performing the 64 aspects of devotional service that increases so Artha Pravrutti and Artha Nivrtti so purification basically these two things Artha Pravrutti and Artha Nivrtti that is purification so now how does scripture bring about purification at one level just by studying the scripture because these are sounds which are ultimately coming from the Lord through the through his devotees so we are associating with so just association will bring purification that’s at one level but that is not the only level at which you get purification but that is also an important level that just by associating with scripture we get purification so in many many traditional Bhagwat Kathas it will start puja of Bhagwat so that is important and the idea is that this is a manifestation of Krishna and we will experience purification through this manifestation of Krishna so one is just by contact just by studying we’ll get purified because this is the manifestation of Krishna and another level is that actually speaking we also get examples of the consequences of the Arthas and the consequences of the Arthas we see people who are doing misdeeds what are their consequences people who are acting properly what are their consequences so that also purifies so if you see in this purification is not an intellectual material we are not talking here in terms of understanding it’s something much deeper it’s purification so when we are associating with Srila Prabhupada actually we are getting Srila Prabhupada’s desires Srila Prabhupada has a desire that we become Krishna conscious he has a desire that we share Krishna consciousness with the world and when we are associating with Srila Prabhupada we get his desires those desires enter into our heart and those desires purify us because ultimately purification is a matter of desires so Srila Prabhupada’s repeated instructions we have sense gratification we have impersonal emotions we have offensive attitudes you hear it then that is like an assault on our impure desires and when he keeps to inspiring instructing driving home into us that this is what we should do actually the desires are getting transferred to us so this may seem subtle in the sense that when this purification is happening we may not feel any tangible change but purification is something which happens at a gradual level I’ll talk about the gradual level over here so I discussed purification at three levels over there 10, 11, what are the three levels? contact with Krishna what was the second point I said? yeah we see models of models of right and wrong behaviour that also purifies us and beyond that we get Srila Prabhupada’s desires so we get Srila Prabhupada’s desires because it is ultimately associated with the matter of desires that when we release Srila Prabhupada’s this is what Srila Prabhupada wants us to do so we take it up so Dutrakarma Prabhu is one of our prominent scientific teachers and interestingly he is not he was not educated in science he did some study in philosophy some sort of course so I asked him how he got into scientific teaching so he told me I read Srila Prabhupada’s books from beginning to end a dozen times and after that when I finished that around 1883-1884 I felt that Srila Prabhupada one insistent instruction was that scientific misconceptions and he took that up and he said I had no background but I kept studying and over a period of time now he is among the most influential of all our teachers in the scientific arena so he was telling his realisation that Prabhupada’s books are filled with jewels what are the jewels? the jewels are the instructions right there so when we take even one jewel from there and we bring it into our heart we make it the compass of our lives then that will enrich us that will give us direction and destination for our spiritual life so ultimately the reading is about taking Srila Prabhupada’s desires and thus scripture is the medium by which we get the will of Krishna so the will of Krishna manifests to us through his sculptures and that’s what we see at the end of the Bhagavad Gita Karishe Vachinantham Arjuna receives, he accepts the will of Krishna so this purification happens in different ways one is contact with Krishna itself purifies, second is that we get models and third is we get more specific instructions this is what I should do and that becomes scientific preaching could be one very specific form of instruction specific form of desire but we can have a lot of desires also become humble, so for example anybody who hears Radhamana Maharaj’s lectures repeatedly, you cannot miss out on the insistence of humility isn’t it? even if somebody is sleeping 95% of the time still in the 5% of time he’ll find out that now the peace will be shared so what happens is even if we don’t we are not having a very attentive something rubs off and it has its effect, so purification is a very very important effect that happens by study of scripture now now we discussed purification, we discussed information, let’s discuss now satisfaction so what does satisfaction here mean? so you see in material field also when we understand something which is difficult when we get a deep insight sometimes we are trying to solve a mathematics problem and not able to solve it and suddenly at one moment we solve it this is how it is so that itself gives satisfaction the classic example of this is Archimedes when he got an understanding of Eureka he became completely body unconscious at this level this ran around so one level is that we get deepened understanding and deepened understanding brings satisfaction and I understand something better actually there is a huge difference between hearing and studying both are important and both are in their own way indispensable but there is no substitute to individual study it may be in a group but ultimately I am connecting with scripture at an individual level so the kind of understanding we get when we connect with scripture and we study and we get some insight we may hear classes and we may get some very inspiring points it is very wonderful but when we ourselves study and we discover some deep insights in the scriptures the joy of that is special it is just like a although ultimately all knowledge is coming from the super soul but when we find it in scripture ourselves the joy of the discovery the intimacy of the connection that happens this doesn’t mean we go into a speculating mode while reading scripture but Krishna will reveal that to us when we study scripture and we find there are so many subtle and wonderful points the deepened understanding which we get by the study of scripture is our very precious treasure and once we start getting that treasure once we start deepening our understanding then at one level that taste is intoxicated it is an intoxicating taste which we cannot resist I want to know this deeper, I want to understand this deeper so at one level it is deeper and understanding itself brings joy then beyond that scripture offers us an enriched connection with Krishna see how do we connect with Krishna at our level, we are doing some services to Krishna, we are trying to remember Krishna but when we are trying to remember Krishna remembering is an activity at the subtle level, at the mental or intellectual level the substance for the activity is thoughts we need some template for thought so always think about Krishna how do I think about Krishna, what do I do I have to have some direction so what happens is when we study scripture we have a ready reservoir of raw material with which we can think about Krishna and without that we may be doing a lot of services but where is our connection with Krishna so we get now scripture is not raw material in the sense that it is not raw, it is very refined it is a rich product but for us it is raw when I hear the story, when I hear the pastime this devotee speaking it may be realised in a different way but when I think about it when I contemplate on it then actually our connection to that increases it’s like we are doing deity worship we are going to do deity worship in the future so we go and take darshan of the deities and then we do the deity worship ourselves in essence there is no difference but actually in the particular stimulation of the heart that happens the enrichment of our connection to the deities is much more stronger so when we study scripture Shri Rampal writes in the first canto that one who studies the scriptures purely he will meet Krishna in the pages of the Srimad Bhagavatam so for us the purpose of studying scripture is to connect with Krishna and Krishna he is the ultimate source of all satisfaction and that’s why in the 11th canto of the Gita it is described that actually the highest pleasure that two individuals can enjoy in the material world is sex but when devotees come together and discuss Krishna Katha the pleasure in that is even greater so those who are the devotees who are studying Prabhupada’s books it is we and Sri Prabhupada it is we we and Sri Prabhupada are coming together and we can actually get a great satisfaction by studying Sri Prabhupada’s books so they want to a very beautiful Vyasa Puja of one of the years 2 or 3 years Vyasa Puja of Sri Prabhupada so he says that my first encounter with you was through your books and he said I guess somebody gave it to me somebody came and asked somebody gave some books so he writes at that time I was with my girlfriend and I made her pay for the book which I wanted then I got the book and I came and I sat in my room and I was lying down on the sofa and reading the book and as I read the book then Prabhupada was writing what is the standard of happiness since gratification it is like Deva Amrit Maharaj he says it is like a hog eating stool and when a hog eats stool don’t think that he is not enjoying eating stool otherwise otherwise how would he be so fat so he said I read this passage I had never read anything like this I felt it was like a glow of punches coming on me I almost fell off the sofa on which I was lying down and from that day he says I simply fell in love with your books and he was telling us one day that he makes a plan he has read Chaitanya Saraswatham dozens and dozens of times there is a book which he loves very much so the point is that there are devotees who are in love for Krishna’s manifestation he told one day if you want to become Brahmachari you have to get married with Shastra you cannot stay a man you have to marry with a woman or you have to marry with Shastra basically you become the brides of Krishna manifesting as Shastra so that’s why scriptural study is extremely enriching for us at an emotional and a spiritual level where is our connection with Krishna it is through the holy name, it is through the deities it is through our service all these are manifesting through Krishna at the same time scriptural study is a very personal connection of Krishna it is not to say that all the other forms are unimportant everything is important in its own place but scriptural study is indispensable so we get a deep connection with Krishna and the satisfaction that comes from that from marrying Krishna that is very so this is how satisfaction comes we can go on in this but we can move forward now we are talking about realisation so normally people think this is how realisation happens information plus experience so that means I hear this world is a place of wisdom and I experience this world is a place of wisdom can I read the words it is actually true we are a place of wisdom so or I hear there is no happiness then I try to engage in some gratification then I realise that oh there is no happiness in it then I can tell actually what scripture is saying is true there is no pleasure and satisfaction now information is indispensable for realisation if there is no information see materialistic people are all suffering in their own ways according to statistics one out of every 50% of American population dies because of heart attacks and one third of those who don’t die of heart attacks they die of cancer both are deadly heart attack is sudden and cancer is prolonged and both are painful in their own ways so if you see the uncertainty and the misery of life that is there that is there for everyone to experience but if you don’t have scriptural information maya deludes us in thinking that actually your misery is an exception, the standard is what you are seeing in television and in the holidays, everybody is enjoying and if you become like that you also enjoy so without information from scripture we will never realise this world is a place of wisdom so information is essential so even I have people, now people who engage in some gratification they get disappointed invariably because the body’s capacity for that is so limited but they think, I saw it in movies I read about novels, I heard everyone talking about it maybe there is something wrong that I am doing about it I have to maybe read some books on sex or I have to go to a sexologist or whatever, I have to try to find out how to do it better so what they think is even if we get the experience of misery without scriptural information we think that my experience is an exception and the norm is to get the enjoyment but when there is information plus experience there can be realisation, however this is not the only way the other way is information plus introspection that means if I hear and I contemplate myself I contemplate, if experience is not essential in fact in the 4th canto of Daksha Pada the argument was that you have spoiled my service because they did not get experience of material life but for that matter Narayana himself did not have experience of material life and actually this argument is very inadequate because all of us have had experience of material life the very fact that we have material body right now indicates that we have been in material existence earlier and we have experienced material life before so therefore all of us have had experience maybe that experience is at a deeper subconscious level because it’s not from this life, it’s from previous life but all of us have that experience so what does introspection mean literally speaking the word spectra is see, intra is inwards, so introspection means to see inwards so we get information from the scripture and then we contemplate on that information correlate that information with what we have ourselves experienced in the past what we have seen others experience and then that gives realisation that means just by hearing and analysing also we can get realisation, it’s not necessary to experience because if we contemplate on the experiences of others that is also one form of experience but the critical thing over there is introspection so there is actually actually I have talked about this in my chakrata, this is shravan this is manan this is vidyasana this is a very important theme in the Upanishads shravan means we get the information so another way to put it is at this stage the knowledge is entering the ears here it is entering the head and here it is entering the heart so shravan means that we hear and we get the information, then when we contemplate on it, we analyse is this really true Ashwagath Rupa did not want lunch for us he said that I have written so many books you read them, you think about them contemplate on them and then understand it for yourself so certainly if we have a chronically doubting mood that is not of much use in spiritual life at the same time thinking to see how spiritual is true that is very valuable for us and then vidyasana, this can be accepted in our hearts at that time spiritual life becomes steady, once for example some boys are coming in for the programme they may be at their home, there is somebody worshipping Devi and then their relatives, their friends, some of them are worshipping Shiva and now they are coming to the temple so what happens, at that time the boys are little confused, if they are worshipping Shiva, Durga or Krishna so gradually they hear about Krishna’s karmas and they study it contemplate on it, gradually they accept it once they accept it, then their practise will become steady, their practise will become intense So now it’s not that now we can say that the sadhaka has got realisation of Krishna supremacy in the absolute sense but we have all of us have got some understanding of it and it is not just intellectual. We have the fact that we have dedicated our life to Krishna service indicate that we have accepted that in our hearts at least at some basic level.
So this is shrava manana nityasam and I’ll talk about manana a little bit more when we come to the principles. So we discussed about the four purposes what are the four purposes once again information is one purpose then there is purification and there is satisfaction and realisation. So all of these are in one sense distinct purposes that we don’t have to go into a zone of analysing all of them too much all of them will happen on their own it just keeps writing scripture and sometimes if in scripture we find that same things are coming again and again that time we can think okay I’m reading this for purification I’m reading this for cleansing my heart and that is going to happen even if I have heard it earlier.
Now let’s go to principles. So the key principle is active reading not passive reading. Reading must be active not passive.
So what is the difference between active and passive reading? Passive reading means there is a word passive means that one just knew nothing just rest in motionless that means if I’m reading the scriptures there and in front of you let’s start with hearing first then we’ll come to reading. So if I’m sitting and hearing somebody’s giving class so I’m not thinking at all about what is going on over there just the sound is going it’s coming and I’m in my own world. So Prabhupada writes in anyetu evam janatha shuddhva anyevyopastha that’s the quote 30.26 I think he says that in that section 15th chapter also describes that he says one should not hear like a hog.
How can one hear like a hog? What does it mean? A hog cannot understand what is being studied. So one should not hear like a hog. So passive hearing would mean that okay something is going on let it go on.
But active means we are trying to think about it. We are trying to connect with it. So we are doing something with the information that is coming on the One of the main reasons we find scriptures very boring is if we are doing it in passive hearing.
Sometimes if we are hearing classes sometimes we may feel okay if I read the notes I have got so many books of notes I never get time to read them. So what is the use of making notes? That is also a valid point and this will go into method, practises later. Some devotees find that making notes helps them to get more involved in the class.
If you are not making notes then because I am passive then I get bored I feel sleepy. On the other hand other devotees may find that actually if I am trying to make notes then I cannot concentrate sufficiently. The thought flow gets interrupted.
So it is not that somebody who is making notes is more active than somebody who is not making notes. But the point is that we have to be active. We have to have some kind of activity which is not so much physical as intellectual.
So here I will just talk about some ways in which we can do active hearing, active reading, active studies. So underline, reword, speak, memorise, compile, comment. I will explain because there are many more also which I have not come over yet.
So one thing is underline. What happens is we have some rajoguna in us all the time and studying is a sattvic activity. So when we studied in our college days, the study itself at one level the subject might not have been sattvic but still studying is a sattvic activity.
So how did we get the motivation? There was a Rajasik goal over there. I am going to get marks. I am going to get a job.
I am going to get congratulated. I may get felicitated. So when we had rajoguna, we found it very difficult to do a sattvic activity at a sattvic level with a sattvic motive.
So we were able to study in college days because there was some rajoguna involved over there in terms of a goal. Now we will see that even in our studies, generally speaking if there is an exam, we study very seriously. Till then things go on.
So Radhama when he started this, the base, first inaugural lecture at that time. So he said in Kaliyuga, people are so lazy. Unless you don’t put fire under them, they don’t jump.
So he said similarly unless we have some target, we have some studies, we have some exams, we just can’t get the motivation to study. So that may be good as a starting level. When we start off our brahmachari life, we have to have exams, we have courses, we have structure.
But as we move forward over the years, Escontilla has not produced a single bhakti sarvabhauma. We have bhakti shastri, bhakti vaiva, bhakti sarvabhauma. So we have few bhakti vaivas, we don’t have a single bhakti sarvabhauma.
And even if somebody becomes a bhakti sarvabhauma, what after that? He has to have some services, some engagements. Of course I am not saying that their devotees are not learning. Many devotees are learning.
But the point is the structuring of the courses, it’s not practical to do that. Because the devotees who are having the desire to study, they are all having different services, they are located at different places, their schedulings are different. To get all of them together to conduct a course is not practical.
In fact a few years ago it was thought that even to conduct bhakti shastri is not practical. Because there are so many services which have to be done. But now it’s understood that this is a foundation of training, so it’s happening.
But still the point is that this external pushes and external prods for us studying, they will not last very long. We are not going to have exams throughout our life. So how will we get the motivation to study? So we have to create our own motivations.
When we are talking about motivation, it’s not in a negative sense, it’s not a high income, it’s ultimately we want to serve Krishna, that’s our ultimate motivation. But some spurs and triggers and incentives for our study. So when we have to get, for example when we have to give an exam, then our reading is very active.
Because we have to memorise this and memorise this and this is not going to come. We are very active, accepting, rejecting, whatever. So how do we get that activity into our study? So one thing that happens for most of us is when we become preachers.
If we have to give classes, we start selling quite seriously. Because we have to speak at that time. And that’s why in general Brahmacharya it’s important for them to at some level become preachers.
Still over a period of time you will find that even if you become preachers, in general for preaching we don’t need a very advanced level of knowledge. Because as I said in my earlier class, Kalav Shudra Sambhav. Tell you everybody is Shudra and that is a good fortune of the preachers.
So people don’t know much, even if we have a little knowledge. Even if we study for 2-3 years with a risk on, people say, how much do you know? So much, how do you know it? It’s not that we know so much. It’s like, you know, what do you say, among the blind, the one-eyed is the king.
So it’s like that. And often what will happen is, if our motive is only preaching, if our motive for studying is only preaching, you see that way, when I talk about the four purposes, in the 64 items of the Gautama Sarvesh, there is no preaching as an activity. It’s not like preaching is not to be done, but it’s implied.
It’s basically a limb of Shravanam Kirtanam. It’s a limb of Shravanam Kirtanam. Preaching itself is not an activity.
If our motive for structural study is preaching only, then our study will be very superficial. Why? Because if we want to preach, in general, we will want to draw laughs, we will want to create jokes, we will want to entertain people. And then that will get us into a mode of searching for masala, searching for some spice.
And then that is not really scriptural study. Now to some extent it may be required, but that will happen naturally. If our goal of studying scripture is only preaching, then our study will be like, it’s our diet, we are searching only for masala.
It’s like that. So it is an additional thing which is good. So preaching is also a good motivation for study.
It’s better than nothing. And without preaching, we are never going to study at all. The preaching, at least we are forced to study at that level.
But if we have the inclination, and if we have the facility, then surely we can go deeper. So actually, you see the causal effect. Now, preaching should be the result of scriptural study, not that preaching is the cause of scriptural study.
There is a difference between the two. Preaching should be the result of scriptural study, not the cause of scriptural study. That means, oh I have to preach, let me study something.
No, I have studied, this message is so wonderful, I want to share with others. Let me go and speak. So at one level there is symbiotic.
So preaching will also inspire us to study more. But the primary causality has to be from the way of scriptural study, this message is so wonderful. So many people have devoted this message, I want to share this with others.
So our scriptural studies will inspire us to preach and when we see that people have benefited, then it will inspire us to study more. That is there. But if our connection with scripture is only for the sake of preaching, then we are missing out a lot on the inner fulfilment and enriching of the scripture in the universe.
Then our study will stay at a very superficial level. So, and now I talked about external motives that we may create, external sort of rajoguna we might create for study. If a preacher has got to give a class for the last 15 minutes, last half hour, one hour, he will not answer phone calls, he will just bury himself in the scripture.
That is good. But that is not the mode in which you want to study life long. So we have to have some other dynamics.
The dynamics of scriptural study. So what are the ways in which you do that? Underlining is something simple, you have got something to do. And more importantly, underlining what does it do? It makes scripture accessible for us in future.
When I read it, this is what I read, this is what I read, this is what I read, this is important, this is important. Underlining can be there, marking can be there. Those who are little bit, those who like to write, libro reading is a very powerful way of absorbing the essence.
That means if I study for one hour, I take one point which inspired me and spend 5 minutes writing it in my own words. And if we decide to do that, that will take our scriptural study to a higher level. Because we will be forced to think.
See, actually, if we are just studying or hearing, the thinking level is not much. Imagine now, if I am here in your class and if I am told, after this class you have to speak a 5 minute summary, 5 minute summary of your class, in the 5 minute, you have to speak 5 minutes something that you like in the class. So if I have to speak something that I like, I will not just have to speak the point, I will have to speak why I like it.
So it will force me to think. So, libro reading is a very powerful way of stimulating our mind when we study, of making our writing active. I know one devotee, every day that he reads, after he reads for half an hour, then he says, out of that half an hour, 5 minutes he writes a letter to Srila Prabhupada.
He says, thank you for giving me this scripture. And today I read this and I was so inspired by this. Bhaktivedanta Maharaj had a habit of writing a letter to Srila Prabhupada based on that day’s event, like a service offering.
But this is quite special. He says, write a letter to Srila Prabhupada. This one I read, So, actually speaking, this will force us to study some more.
Some more of us may be very lazy to write, which is fine. Then we can just speak it ourselves. So, speak it ourselves, Sri Adi Shankar Bhaktivinoda Thakur, every morning when he would do his, his schedule was that, he would wake up early in the morning, translate scripture, write scripture, then he would do his rounds, then he would just pace around.
There is some philosophy which he would just talk with himself. He would take Purvapaksha and then Khanda. This is how the reference is.
Just walk around and talk. Now people may think of us strange if we are talking with ourselves. But we can talk with ourselves in the morning also.
So, basically put in words what we have heard. So, what happens is, this forces us to think. If you can do it with some other devotee, that is excellent.
I will come to that in the practise part. But here we are talking about stimulating our reading. Speaking to ourselves is very helpful.
Then, another very important tool is memorising. Actually, memorising may seem a burden to our head. Memorising may seem burdening our head, but it will unburden our heart.
Because memorised verses offer us a ready-made connection with Krishna. And actually when our heart is not connected with Krishna, then we get burdened by lust, we get burdened by anxiety, we get burdened by envy. But if we can bring Krishna into our heart, then we can remove that burden.
So, memorisation is a very valuable tool. I like to think of verses as ready-made templates for devotional talk. Verses are what? Ready-made templates for devotional talk.
Like if you have, now I have made this powerpoint, I used a template which was there. So, on that template, I can build things very easily. So, whether I have to think about Krishna, I get some template for thinking over this.
So, memorising can be, either we can memorise Sanskrit verses or we can even memorise certain striking sentences from Prabhupada’s reports or certain translations we can memorise. So, I know Prahladamala has memorised practically the whole Krishna book. Whole Krishna book from beginning to end, he can just read it out without looking at it.
It’s a phenomenon. Amazing. So, there are devotees who have done that.
Gautam Prabhupada told me once that, you know, we had to correspond together, but when he met me, he came to know that I had to send him out. He said that, no, I know one devotee. He wants to meet one preacher in Srivastava Mahapradaya.
He is blind and he has memorised all 18,000 verses of Krishna Mahapradaya. First of all, memorising 18,000 is so difficult. And if somebody is blind, then he just hears and memorises.
It’s so much more difficult. So, the Shruti Dharas are not just in the past. We may not be Shruti Dharas.
We may have to spend time and effort to memorise it. But actually, some devotees use scriptural memorisation as primarily a tool to make their preaching more authoritative or more bombastic. Authoritative means, what I am speaking is national scripture.
Sometimes I just want to impress people. Just go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. People get outstruck. Oh, you know so many verses.
Actually, that completely, we are cheating ourselves if we are doing that. Basically, what we are doing, if we are using memorisation of scriptures for exhibiting our learning, then what we are doing, we are making Shastra our servant. We are making Shastra as an ornament for our ego.
And surely that memorisation will purify us, but that will not benefit us much. But if we use scripture to enhance our own contemplation, it is very powerful. So, if I go and take darshan of the deities, then if I memorise some words, I offer them to the deities everyday.
I did it for 6 months of my life, but afterwards I got very lazy. Everyday I would memorise one word. And when I would go and take darshan, I would say, this verse is my offering to the deities.
So, I was looking forward to take darshan everyday. Because it was not easy. If I had done that, I would have memorised thousands of verses by now.
And it doesn’t take much effort. Actually, once you start memorising, once you develop the habit, it is not very difficult. It is just the mind has to get into the, accept that hard work.
Once you start accepting the hard work, you will find the work is not so hard. But it is like, you have to trigger a train, you have to move a train, you have to push it, it is difficult. Once it starts moving, it has to move.
So, memorisation is extremely valuable. And in general, what I try to do is, every pastime that is there in the Bhagavatam, every character that is there in the Bhagavatam, I want to memorise at least a few verses related to that. So that, that is my connection.
So, Kutumara’s pastime is there. One or two verses connecting with that. One or two verses connecting with that.
Every character in the Bhagavatam, I have not yet done that, but I am working towards that. So, what happens by this is, I have a connection. I have a connection with those characters.
I just have a, okay, if I want to speak about Kutumara, I have one verse, based on that one verse I can explain and I can speak. If I want to speak, I can contemplate. So, memorising is very helpful.
So, everyday when we are studying scripture, okay, what is the, what is something that I can memorise today? And we don’t have to think about memorising in terms of a whole verse also. Sometimes, even one-fourth of a verse will be inspiring for us. And we can memorise one-fourth.
Because that will give us some template for that. Krishna says in Bhagavatam, Tyaga shanti ranantara. It’s a very nice phrase.
Tyaga shanti ranantara. Renunciation brings peace. Unending peace.
So, very nice. Just one phrase, you remember it, it will be a very good template for that. So, memorisation is a very good way to activate our thinking.
And you will see even Prabhupada’s books, Prabhupada often quotes fragments of verses. And if you go into Veda Vais, sometimes those devotees who do transcription, they just put a question mark over there. They don’t even know where this verse is from.
So, sometimes it is still there. They are removing that question mark and Veda Vais is happening. But Prabhupada will quote fragments of verses also.
So, we don’t have to think of, oh, I have to memorise four big lines of Bhagavatam verses. Just one phrase is enough. So, then, compile.
Compile is, it’s like making our own notes. But, okay, we compile in different points in different places. That is, if I want to understand how lust is not a source of happiness, then I read something here, I read something here, I compile it to happiness.
Now, most devotees do compilation only when they have to speak. Which is also good. But if you do compilation for our own purification, for our own empowerment.
Now, all the verses which are there talking about how sense gratification is not a source of happiness. When our mind gets agitated, it’s such a valuable resource for us. So, and then another one is comment.
Now, comment means, not that we put ass on the head, you know, but that’s it. We comment on what Prabhupada is saying. But, see, generally, we use the word comment in a very different sense from the way it is used in the tradition.
When a person is writing a commentary on a book, what is the idea? That book is great. And I am simply trying to explain it a little bit. Our idea of comment is, we put arses as a judge, I will comment about this, comment about that.
No. The word commentary, what does it mean? Commentary is not just on scriptures. Commentary can be on the Prithvacharya’s books also.
Sri Prabhupada in fact proved it. That in the future, my disciples and followers will write commentaries on my books. And to some extent, that is happening.
Gurujan Prabhupada was certain to run to me and I am reading the notes, we can comment on the purports of Sri Prabhupada. So, we can write our own comments. What does that mean? If some sentence inspires us, then we elaborate on that.
Because, inspirations fickle. That means, sometimes I hear a point, it is so inspiring. Next time I read it, it is dead.
Nothing seems to inspire me. What happened? So, if we remember, why is it inspiring? I noted that. So, commenting is valuable.
Commenting forces us to think. But more than that, commenting helps us to preserve our thoughts. There are two different things over here.
One is that we write to think. But the second is we write to preserve our thoughts. I get some thought, such a precious thought.
We write it down. So, we comment. Whenever we feel inspired by some constructive overview, we comment on it.
So, these are ways in which we can make our study more active, more dynamic. We don’t keep our study passive. We make it active.
The last part is practises. So, there are many things in this. I will just focus on a few points over here.
So, as we move from the principles to practises, things will become more and more individualised. Purposes are standard. Everybody wants to serve Krishna.
Everybody wants to get purified. Principles, some principles we will find more applicable than others. And practises, somebody may find some practises entirely irrelevant.
So, some devotees feel if I am reading one book, I will not read anything else. Vyasayatmika Buddha. That is their understanding of Vyasayatmika Buddha.
I will read only one book and nothing else. Some other devotees will say, I will read one book. But along with that, I may get some other interesting things to read also.
So, I will read that also. So, say if I have got say 6 hours, if I have one hour per week, per day, 7 hours I have got per day, then 5 hours will be my regular reading, 2 hours will be my miscellaneous reading. I get some back to Godhead magazine or I get some new book.
I find something interesting to read. I will then read that also. So, that is one way.
So, now, it is not that any one approach is better than others. There are different approaches. And this dynamic can also work out that I read one book alone and I read another book together.
If we can bond with some other devotees and join together and read, it is not practical for many devotees because our services and our schedules are different. But if we can work out and we can share with some devotees, just work together, plan out, every day 15 minutes, half an hour we sit and read together. If we can do that, then and if we feel satisfied, it will vary from person to person whether a person feels satisfied by that or not.
All these are individual. We have to see what works for us. So, if we find out, then we may have something like we are reading one book with some other devotee and then we are reading one book ourselves.
That is also possible. That can be a variety. And one important thing is pre-reading and re-reading.
What is pre-reading? That means, say before we start reading, just scan through. So, that creates a sense of anticipation. If I have got one hour and I am going to read 10 pages, that is my speed or I can read 15 pages, just scan through 15 pages.
Then that creates anticipation. I do not want to go there, go there, go there. So, pre-reading is helpful to create anticipation.
And re-reading helps in memorisation. So, if I just read it, if I am also underlining, marking, then what happens by that? As I go back again, this is what I wrote, this is what I wrote. And it is amazing how much we forget.
It is simply amazing. So, if we just revise, it helps a lot in memorising. It is a brief revision.
Every time before we re-read, it is pre-read and then it is quickly re-read. That helps in connecting, helps in memorising. And then, somebody, some student may feel I want to read multiple books, just like in therapy, somebody is studying in PL, some devotee may feel, some student may feel, I just will complete one subject, then I will go to the next subject.
Others will say, I am very bored with one subject. So, I will read three subjects together. One hour for this, one hour for this, one hour for this.
Different people have different levels. Multiple books is also fine. But the crucial thing is, there has to be a practise, there has to be a method.
What should not be there is, we are just jumping from one book to another, one book to another, to another, to another. Then we will get nowhere. We start reading Bhagavatam and then we start reading Bhagavatam one day, one day, one day, and then we get nowhere.
Bhagavatam is so good, when we get over, not getting any sense of success, then we pick up a small book and at least I have completed a book, I will feel as if I have read something. Then I start reading a small book and they say, oh, you are still reading small books? When will you come to Bhagavatam then? Actually, there is somebody who says Bhagavata is foundational philosophy, study that. I start studying Bhagavad Gita and then every time I start studying Bhagavata, I start going to sleep.
I think, better than sleeping, I should read the past time books. So, I take up Mahabharata. Then I start reading Mahabharata.
So, then if we are jumping around like that, then we may be in the movement for many years and you will find that, what have I read in my life? Actually, at least before we die, we should read all of Prabhupada’s books at least once. At least once we should be able to complete. So, of course, there are devotees who have completed many, many times.
We may not, but at least once. So, if we have a plan. So, it is not that reading different books is not good.
We may change also. We may decide, ok, one month I will read this book, one month I will read this book, one month I will read this book. That is also fine.
But we need to have some plan. Because a plan makes a direction. What happens with planning is, we don’t stay at the mercy of our mind.
Otherwise, without planning, we are simply at the mercy of our mind. That means, ok, mind says do this, do this, do this. Now, certainly, we can’t just crush our mind.
So, if I am reading Bhagavad Gita and I am feeling sleepy, then I have to anticipate the plan. Ok, that means, if that is what is going to happen, then I will not plan. If I have two hours, I will not plan to read Bhagavad Gita for two hours.
I will read Bhagavad Gita for half an hour and maybe I will read something else. And then I will read something else or do something else and again I will read. So, we need to plan our reading.
And then we will be able to connect with Krishna very wonderfully. So, there are multiple other methods also within the reading. I will talk about the broad methods over here.
And if we study scripture in this way, study makes us sturdy, steady and sturdy. This is the concluding thing I am saying. Study makes us steady and sturdy.
Steady means when we, our mind becomes calm. Listen, the sine waves are there, but the sine waves don’t go too much up and down. Become steady, steady, steady.
And then beyond steady we become sturdy. Sturdy means sturdy. Whatever likes ups and downs come along, we know that actually we are in that direction.
We are, we have orientated our life according to Krishna’s timeless wisdom. And that gives, scripture study gives us an internal resilience, a toughness to face the challenges of life. So, this is what we will get by studying scripture.
And to some extent, especially if you are a Vramacharis, steadiness and sturdiness is important. Because for us, I discussed earlier, struggle is not so much for existence at a physical level. We may not have physical comforts, but we don’t have physical inconveniences also.
It’s not that our roti, kapda, makan are in danger. Somebody fires us, I don’t know where I will go and what I will do. It’s not that.
But for us, the struggle is much more at the mental level. And that’s why, sometimes even those who are Vrahasthas may not get time to read Sri’s scripture. They should also read, but even if they don’t get time, they can hear and they can get much more, they can also get strength by that.
But Vramacharis, for us, our struggle is much more internal. And for that internal struggle, we need internal strength. And internal strength comes by studying scripture.
So, this is how the scriptural study, we do it systematically as per plan and we make a steady and sturdy. To summarise, I talked about three things. Purposes, principles and practises.
So, purposes, we discussed primary purposes to serve Krishna and connected with that is information, information purification, realisation, satisfaction. Then we discussed about the principle. Primary principle is active reading or passive reading.
And we discussed various ways in which we can generate activity in our reading. And lastly, we discussed practises, whether one book or many books, together or alone, about different things, we discussed modalities. And I concluded with, it becomes steady and sturdy by the study.
So, any questions? Sometimes, services seem like an impediment to study. Two things about this. First is that, we have to have some schedule by which we have some prescribed time.
And even our authorities, our peers, we should also have proper talk with them. This is the time when I do my studies. So, ad hoc things may happen, may happen sometimes.
But if emergency is happening every day, then the emergency is not in the world, the emergency is in our planning. So, at least we should have some schedule by which we study. Some time for study is there.
And secondly, as far as other services are concerned, we also understand that it is by service that I get realisation. Ultimately, what I am studying is scripture. I am practising by selling it.
So, services are important. Because in that sense, I am trying to live scripture. See, when we live scripture, scriptures become alive for us.
When we live scriptures, scriptures become alive for us. When we don’t live scriptures, scriptures just remain like dead documents for us. There are many academic scholars who study scripture much better than us.
But Krishna didn’t manifest to them. Scriptures never become alive for you. So, when we live scriptures, scriptures become alive for us.
Therefore, it is important for us to live scriptures. And living scriptures is by service. So, first is create some time properly.
And second is, this is how scriptures will come alive. So, secondly, do services. It is very difficult to analyse Prabhupada’s purpose because, as I said that scriptures are synthetic, whereas our way of studying is analytical.
We don’t find any logical way of studying the way in which Prabhupada’s works. Prabhupada’s writing is technically called as stream of consciousness writing. Stream of consciousness.
So, now certainly if a person is thoughtful and introspective, what he speaks will also be well reasoned. It will also be thoughtful. But speech itself is not writing.
Speech itself is not writing. And writing is a different activity. Those who are professional writers, they will never write books by dictation.
Because they will write and they will read and they will edit and they will refine. So, those iterations are there. So, instead of Prabhupada’s books are in that sense stream of consciousness.
So, we have to get used to this type. So, we focus, when we are studying Sri Prabhupada’s writings, on the motives of purification, realisation and satisfaction. So, as far as intellectual analysis is concerned, if we feel the need, we can take assistance of the books of either Prakash Acharyas or Sri Prabhupada’s disciples to get a deeper analytical understanding.
If that is what we need. And it is not that everybody needs that. Most people are satisfied with what Sri Prabhupada, in one sense, it is like a doctor giving prescription to a patient.
This is a crude example. I will qualify it later. Now, there are most patients who don’t need an elaborate analysis of how is the disease, how it will develop, what caused the disease, what are the possible complications of the disease.
They don’t need all that. What should I do? What medicines should I take? Can we want medicine? That is what most patients need. So, Prabhupada caters to that.
What I should do? That is what Prabhupada primarily caters to. So, at one level, Prabhupada’s books are prescriptive. Do this, do this, do this, do this.
Prabhupada’s books are primarily prescriptive. But it would be very, very inaccurate to say that they are only prescriptive. They are also having good analytical practises.
But Prabhupada has a focus that because Prabhupada’s books are prescriptive, that is why they will reach out to a large degree. For example, Thakur’s books, it is like a doctor explaining about a disease to another doctor. So, what happens is, the patient has an intellectual side.
If we have an intellectual side and we need it, then by studying, we can study Prasad Chahara’s books. We can of course take guidance of senior devotees and plan it out. Our primary study should always be Prabhupada’s books.
We can study some other Prasad Chahara’s books also. And to some extent, if we understand the context of the practise in which Prabhupada is writing, by studying Prasad Chahara, by studying subsequent devotees’ books, our appreciation for Prabhupada’s books will increase. So, generally speaking, what I try to do is that there are certain speakers, when I hear from them, I tell them, this class, this reading is not for analysis.
It is simply for purification. Purification is not a negative word. It is for instruction, it is for association, it is for purification.
So, that way, if our mind needs, if we have an intellectual foundation by which we need more analytical stuff, we can’t deny that. So, we have to create room for that. So, Ravindra Sir has written a book called Humanist Love.
It’s very funny. If somebody is an intellectual, they love that. So, they all are searching for it.
India is also there. Excellent book. And somebody who doesn’t have that intellectual nature, they say, what is this? You know, every word, every sentence, every page, I have to look at the dictionary ten times.
What is this? But others will enjoy that. So, we have to understand, we have to switch off. This reading is not for analytical purposes.
There is analysis in Sri Aurobindo’s books also. But sometimes we have an over-sophisticated definition of analysis. Very complicated words and complicated language and new concepts.
Then sometimes we are not able to see it. So, one thing which we can find helpful is rewording. If we start doing that, put what you have read in Sri Aurobindo’s books in our own words.
Take one sentence of Sri Prabhupada and comment on that. Write 50 words, 100 words, whatever. So, in general, I would say three things.
First is that there is depth in Sri Aurobindo’s books. You have to understand that Sri Prabhupada’s books are for a class, class audience also there are concepts. But it’s primarily for us.
It’s like a doctor’s prescription. So, when we read, we put the analysis mode off. This is for institutions.
This is for study purification. This is for relevance studies. No.
So, studying is primarily once it’s instruction. Isn’t it? What should I do? The instruction is primarily motive for study. I want to receive instructions.
So, sometimes if you are more intellectual, then the analytical mode becomes so great that you don’t feel like doing so much application. So, if you decide that my study of Prabhupada’s books is primarily for application, for learning how to apply this. And then, hopefully from that perspective, and you have some other books also.
Actually, if you read other books, you will find Prabhupada’s reports written in it. It’s a condition. Somebody’s intellectual condition has to satisfy.
A simple example I’ll give is, if somebody is told that all kirtans that you have to do, only Prabhupada has to do. If some devotees are very good singers, you will torture for them. On the other hand, there are some devotees who start singing very complex tunes.
Why are you doing this? Some other devotees who don’t have a musical sense, you will think like that. So, you know, Nakrishnamurti in a simple tune or a complex tune is what is the essence. So, now, the difference between these two is that, you know, the complexity of musical tune often delights many people.
The complexity of intellectual subject doesn’t delight many people. But if that is our need, we understand in principle that Prabhupada’s Hare Krishna tune has far more potency than all these musically entertaining tunes. Similarly, intellectually stimulating subjects.
I had asked Raghav Maharaj this. Raghav Maharaj, I find your writings and your talk so sophisticated. As compared to that, I find Shri Raghav Maharaj very simple.
Maharaj said that actually, you know, Prabhupada is intense. He is intense in his desire to cure the heart and to nourish the mind and the function of consciousness. So, when we become intense, we are reaching for God’s grace.
So, if our intellectual reaches too much, then we have to cater to that. But we have to understand that Raghav has come here for intellectual satisfaction. He has come here for devotional communication.
Let him come to Prabhupada’s temple for God’s grace. So, create a forum for satisfying our intellectual needs. And then, within Prabhupada’s books, rewording is very helpful.
So, rather than looking for an analysis and a flow within the purports or connection between the translation and the purport, that is there many times. We can try to see that also. But if we find that we are not finding that, then we can just take striving centre from Prabhupada’s books and Prabhupada’s purports and write them down.
That rewording will also help us understand. Any other questions? Thank you very much. Shri Raghav Prabhupada ki Jai.
Daura Vartamindu ki Jai. Daura Vartamindu ki Jai.