What exactly are the stages of sravana, manah and nidhidhyasan (hearing, contemplation and assimilation)?

From Ramabhadrapriya Pr:

the process of knowledge is mentioned as stages of sravana, manah and nidhidhyasan ( hearing, contemplation and assimilation) . What are these stages, do you have any material on this subject, are there any books or previous acharyas books where this is discussed.

Transcript

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Question from Ram. The process of knowledge is mentioned as the stages of Shravan, Manana and Nidhidhyasana. Hearing, contemplation and assimilation.
What are these stages? Do you, are there any books or previous Acharyas where this is discussed? Answer. This is primarily discussed in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad in verses 2, 4, 5. And there it is described that Shravan is hearing, as the word literally means. Now, Manana means, after we hear, we contemplate, so that we can get a proper intellectual understanding.
And Nidhidhyasana means, after contemplating, we apply it in our lives and transform our life. So, Shravan means the knowledge enters our ears. Manana means the knowledge enters our head.
And Nidhidhyasana means the knowledge enters our heart and transforms our heart and our life. So, it is like knowing, understanding and applying. So, now, in our Samtradaya, Baldev Devji has commented on several of the Upanishads, but many of his commentaries are lost.
And as of now, his Brihadaranyaka Upanishad commentary may be available, but it is not known whether the manuscripts are available and where they are available. But based on what Srila Prabhupada has taught us, we can look at what the Bhagavatam also says. Bhagavatam says, that actually when we hear the message and then we start serving the person Bhagavats, then the effects of the modes of passion and ignorance subside.
And then we can start developing love for Krishna, where the absolute truth becomes clear and the absolute truth becomes clear, naturally develop love for Krishna. So, in our daily lives, we often hear and read a lot. Now, some of that is familiar, some of that is new.
So, in general, as we spend more and more years in Krishna consciousness, then the new stuff that we get becomes lesser and lesser. And because of that, when the same familiar things are heard again and again, our enthusiasm goes down. So, that means, if we just stay at the shravan level, then we will stay intellectually dissatisfied because we will not find anything new.
So, then we will have to go deeper to start applying what we are hearing. So, we can think in terms of whatever is the basic philosophy that I have heard. Okay, I have heard a million times possibly that I am not the body, I am the soul.
But if I truly, have I truly understood it? Okay, I can have understood in a way that I can explain to others logically, through the car body analogy or through scientifically, through consciousness, near-death experiences, past life memories, that I am not the body, I am the soul. But if I have understood it, have I internalized and applied it? If I truly understood that I am not the body, I am the soul, then I would focus my desires more on the soul and less on the body. I would neglect my bodily needs, at least those which are unwarranted in terms of cravings, and I would focus more on my spiritual needs, spiritual necessities for advancement.
So, when we think of it in these terms, then the same knowledge will appear relevant for us. It may not appear new, but it is relevant. So, knowledge at one level is like food.
In the fourth canto, when Prithu Maharaj milks the cow, at that time, it is said the transcendentalists come and take what will nourish them from the cow of the earth. So, everybody comes and takes what they want. So, the devas come and take soma, the asuras come and take wine, and different people take different things.
The transcendentalists take transcendental sound. The transcendental sound is what nourishes them. So, how does it nourishes? Just like when we eat food, there is standard food that we eat every day, that is rice, dal, chapati.
Now, if there is a daily meal, we may not look forward to rice, dal, chapati, but when we eat that and digest that, that is what gives us nourishment and energy. There might be some special items which we also like to eat. We may look forward to them also.
But they are secondary. They are not what nourishes. They are not what gives energy.
They meditate us. So, similarly, we may find some new information that meditates us, but the basic philosophical points are what are going to transform us, because they are going to nourish us spiritually. So, we can keep an inventory by which we can see if this basic spiritual point that we are hearing, are we applying them? And if we apply them more and more, maybe we can select different points to apply at different times in our spiritual life.
And as we keep focusing on this application more and more, we will find that the knowledge will become more and more fresh, because we find that there is so much for us to learn in terms of how I can internalize and apply this knowledge in my life. And that will enable us to keep ourselves spiritually enlivened in hearing and spiritually enlivened in applying and experiencing the transformation in our lives. Thank you.