Should we study books about God’s greatness and sweetness progressively or in parallel?
Answer Podcast
Transcript
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thank you very much and for the sake of serving, if the service attitude is developed then how we serve Krishna that will vary according to time and circumstances that will vary according to time and circumstances so it is not necessary let’s say somebody who is talking about 10th Canto Bhagavata pastimes of Krishna is necessarily closer to Krishna in their own heart when somebody who is talking about basic philosophy because that is what the audience needs to hear now Prabhupada was in Vrindavan he was relishing Krishna’s sweetness but then Prabhupada travelled all over the world and then he spoke if you see he spoke the basic philosophy because that was what the message that the audience needed to get so Prabhupada’s devotion was in primarily not just his absorption in Krishna Deela it was his absorption in Krishna Seva in whatever was required for the service of Krishna and he was ready to do that so that is we have to primarily focus on developing a service attitude and while developing a service attitude we will also see that at different phases in our spiritual life we may feel more attracted to different aspects so it is not that more advanced devotees will necessarily read more Krishna’s pastimes and less advanced devotees will read more of Krishna’s philosophy nothing like that it is at our stage somehow or the other fix the mind on Krishna so yes we read the books progressively but then if we feel inspired we can read some books also say Gaurpani Mai we can read about Lord Chaitanya’s pastimes or Radhashtami is coming we can read a little bit carefully of course about Radharani so it is not that we have to divorce ourselves from higher bhakti wisdom but we also need to know that just by reading higher bhakti wisdom we don’t enter into it you know higher bhakti revelations it is the service attitude which takes us in there there are in Vrindavan, Radhapur there are many sahajiyas who just talk about Krishna’s intimate pastimes but unfortunately if you look at their personal lives they are not even following basic principles of morality so it is just talking about Krishna’s intimate pastimes doesn’t necessarily take us closer to him it is the service attitude that ultimately takes us closer to him so with that service attitude if you are functioning Krishna will guide us how best we can serve him, how best we can come closer to him we can actually manage the balance between studying his greatness and his sinlessness, so it is not that we have to have 50-50 or this more or that less we just try to cultivate a service attitude and then with that gradually whatever is required we read