With what purpose should we read Srila Prabhupada’s books?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
so what is the purpose when we read Srila Prabhupada’s books first is of course that we are just associating with Srila Prabhupada he has so much desire to serve Krishna that by associating with him we will get the desire to serve Krishna so and the purpose is that we want to learn learn the message of Krishna consciousness we want to learn the wisdom that he is imparting in his books we want to become more intellectually equipped to answer the questions that our own mind poses and the world poses so you could say association then as I said then equipping ourselves equipment, equipping ourselves intellectually and then also related with association also is purification we become purified because Srila Prabhupada is so pure he is giving us Shastra Krishna is manifesting through it so we become purified by that and the if our purpose is simply to look for information information which no one has heard and then I want to speak that information then what happens? After initial phase of enthusiasm we will become little disappointed with Prabhupada’s books because Prabhupada keeps speaking the same things again and again so we need to be clear about what my purpose is see in spiritual life if we have an intellectual need for new information we can find out which devotees give classes and intellectually stimulating and hear those classes we can read some other devotees books but we need to know what will help us to advance spiritually is not just intellectual stimulation it is actually application and transformation Srila Prabhupada constantly keeps reminding us of the basics and of course it’s not only the basics Prabhupada’s purports are very deceptively simple they are deep but we have to actually enter into them to realize it so instead of an information seeking approach if we cultivate an application seeking approach yeah I have read this so many times ok I have read this instead of saying the mind what happens is when we hear classes one of the ways the mind tricks us oh this is all basic this is for everyone else this is not for me I am an advanced devotee I am a knowledgeable person now many times we just have to learn to out trick the mind ok this is for new people this is not for me actually that’s not necessarily true because we also need to apply the basic things but still even the mind says like that ok this is for new people how can I best present it to new people so ok how is this devotee presenting it let me think how would I present it this is a nice point I would present it this way so we can just turn the question around obviously this is for new people yes I also have to speak to new people how can I speak to them so like that when you are reading oh I have read this point so many times when did I last read it what was the context you know is this a different context you know when was the last time that I tried to apply it or what happened to me I didn’t succeed or I succeeded how much did I succeed so basically rather than just looking for new information if you start looking for application then we will find that Prabhupada’s books will become like a invaluable compass for us they will always keep getting us back on track back on track when a flight is going from one place to another you know 90% of the time it is off course because of the wind pressure because of the atmospheric conditions what gets you to the destination the reorientation so Prabhupada’s books act like the reorientation for us get us back get us back on track so we have to see at different times in our spiritual life different purposes may inspire us our ultimate purpose is I want to serve Krishna and reading Prabhupada’s books the way we are serving Krishna Krishna’s pure devotee which specific the ultimate motive is serving Krishna which specific motive will inspire us in our service to Krishna or through reading that will vary on time so we have to find out whichever inspires us and study accordingly. Does this answer your question?