When should an upcoming devotee start reading Bhagavatam?

Transcript

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question when we go to the growing in the spiritual life is there any specific criteria or time when they can start reading the Bhagavatam from the first canto onwards answer generally it’s good to have our fundamental questions answered by reading the small books the basics of the small books medium books like science of self-realization, journey of self-discovery so these make our philosophical fundamentals clear and after that Bhagavad Gita is also a foundational book which we will keep reading regularly throughout our life so that is like a guide book for life and along with that we have the other books of Bhakti Shastri and Odishopanishad so in general if one has read the small and medium books and one has read the Bhagavad Gita and has got a basic grasp of the philosophy then surely one can read Bhagavatam now it’s not that one cannot read Bhagavatam before that but the Bhagavatam is a devotional work and although Srila Prabhupada often elaborates basic points also in his purports to keep the readers from getting disoriented but still if our basic questions are not answered then we will face a lot of unnecessary doubts because, not unnecessary in the sense that the doubts are not necessary but unnecessary in the sense that those kind of doubts will distract us from understanding the Bhagavatam or even focusing on the Bhagavatam so it’s just like a person who is not studied basic maths starts studying calculus there is too much agitation of the mind so at least the basic grounding in the philosophy through reading the small and medium books and through reading Bhagavad Gita at least in getting a basic grasp of philosophy is essential for reading Bhagavatam and beyond that when we are reading Bhagavatam we don’t stop reading other books we keep reading other books also whenever they are relevant for our purpose but we shouldn’t think that we need to read all the small books before we read Bhagavatam because that process may itself take a long long time and if you see Srila Prabhupada’s books strictly speaking his books are what he dictated the purports to most of what we call as other books they are actually compilations from his lectures Journey of Self Discovery Self SSR these are very important books because they clarify many basic concepts but still they are his compilations based on his conversations or his talks and Srila Prabhupada himself said that his most important contribution is his books so we take shelter of Srila Prabhupada primarily through his books so we do and Srila Prabhupada considers Bhagavatam his most important contribution so we want to associate with Srila Prabhupada and serve him by reading his books so we should not delay it too much so it wouldn’t be in terms of years that is primary but it is more in terms of getting our philosophical fundamentals clarified and getting the basic books understood at least in terms of their foundational concepts then we can go on to Bhagavatam and if you find that reading Bhagavatam is giving us too many questions, too many doubts and those doubts are distracting us from the essence of the Bhagavatam then maybe we need to again go back to the basics or find out a devotee who helps us to address those doubts so that we can move forward so Srila Prabhupada basically when he was asked about the Raasthila for example the 10th Canto, should devotees read about the Raasthila, Prabhupada said if by reading the Raasthila if you are getting agitated, if lust is getting you that means basically you are too much caught up in material conceptions and we are seeing Krishna also from material perspective then best to not read it but if you can see Krishna from spiritual perspective then surely you can read it Prabhupada gave it in Krishna book which actually is meant for mass distribution so actually reading the Bhagavatam from the 1st Canto if we are doing then we shouldn’t put too many hurdles in that because Srila Prabhupada was concerned especially about those who jump to the 10th Canto prematurely from the 1st Canto onwards we can surely read because that is how we are going to associate with Prabhupada’s magnum opus his most invaluable association is available in the most condensed and most potent way through the Bhagavatam that’s why we should definitely read it and we should be eager to read it and as soon as we complete the basic books in Bhagavad Gita