Prayerful Reading

One method of allowing Śrīla Prabhupāda's books to help us become devotees.

By Bhūrijana Dāsa

THIS approach is one of attitude. As aspiring devotees, we might approach Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam for varying purposes, but in all cases eagerness to hear the Bhāgavatam is itself favorable, because eagerness added to our reading inspires Kṛṣṅa to help our attempts for purity and advancement in Kṛṣṅa consciousness.

Śrī Kṛṣṅa, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramātmā [Supersoul] in everyone’s heart and the benefactor of the truthful devotee, cleanses desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who has developed the urge to hear His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.17)

The goal of prayerful reading is less an intellectual gathering of information and more an attempt to allow śāstra (scripture) to affect us. It is an attempt to gain association, to listen carefully to Kṛṣṅa's message, to let potent transcendental words sink deeply into the core of our consciousness. When reading in this way, one doesn’t attempt to read a specific quantity. That goal is superseded by a desire for depth of purification through associating with Śrīla Prabhupāda, our ācāryas, and Śrī Kṛṣṅa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Even a small step toward such a lofty goal requires a correct attitude when approaching the book.

An essential attitudinal element is to approach Śrīla Prabhupāda's books as being non-different from Śrīla Prabhupāda. When he returned to Śrī Vṛndāvana Dhāma in ill health in May 1977, he gravely said, “So there is nothing to be said new. Whatever I have to speak, I have spoken in my books. Now you try to understand it and continue your endeavor.”

Prabhupāda once said that he would never die but would live forever in his books.

In addition, Kṛṣṅa Himself is fully present within the Bhāgavatam. Indeed, the sages of Naimiṣarāṅya asked, “Since Śrī Kṛṣṅa, the Absolute Truth, the master of all mystic powers, has departed for His own abode, please tell us to whom the religious principles have now gone for shelter.” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.1.23)

Śrīla Sūta Gosvāmī replied: “This Bhāgavata Purāṅa is as brilliant as the sun, and it has arisen just after the departure of Lord Kṛṣṅa to His own abode, accompanied by religion, knowledge, etc. Persons who have lost their vision due to the dense darkness of ignorance in the Age of Kali shall get light from this Purāṅa.” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.3.43)

In the purport to the next verse, Śrīla Prabhupāda comments: “One can certainly see directly the presence of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṅa in the pages of the Bhāgavatam if one has heard it from a self-realized great soul like Śukadeva Gosvāmī. . . . But somehow or other if someone hears with rapt attention from the right person, at the very beginning one can assuredly see Lord Śrī Kṛṣṅa in person in the pages of the Bhāgavatam.

For me at present, the most interesting quotations about hearing from the Bhāgavatam are from Śrīla Prabhupāda's purports to Canto Seven, Chapter 14, verses 4 and 8. (The emphasis added in bold is my own.)

Another specific description here is śṛṅvan bhagavato ’bhīkṣṅam avatāra-kathāmṛtam. It is not that because one has once finished the Bhagavad-gītā he should not hear it again. The word abhīkṣṅam is very important. We should hear again and again. There is no question of stopping: even if one has read these topics many times, he should go on reading again and again because bhagavat-kathā, the words spoken by Kṛṣṅa and spoken by Kṛṣṅa's devotees about Kṛṣṅa, are amṛtam, nectar. The more one drinks this amṛtam, the more he advances in his eternal life.

In the śāstras—the Purāṅas and other Vedic literatures—there are so many narrations describing the transcendental activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and everyone should hear them again and again. For example, even if we read the entire Bhagavad-gītā every day, all eighteen chapters, in each reading we shall find a new explanation. That is the nature of transcendental literature.

To me, these two quotations indicate the amṛta—freshness—and life that each reading of transcendental literature can offer. To help us truly realize the potency of Śrīla Prabhupāda's books, and therefore understand his stress on both reading and distributing them, and to help us increase our own devotion, we may honestly, humbly, and prayerfully seek instruction, association, and mercy each time we read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Attitude assists our receptivity.

Suggested Steps When Beginning To Practice Prayerful Reading

1. Decide on what you will read. Mark the place. Decide how long you will spend reading. The time can be fifteen minutes, thirty minutes, or one hour or more. It’s up to you.

2. Go to a quiet place where you can be alone and uninterrupted for a specific time. Make whatever arrangements you need to avoid interruptions, including taking care of bodily needs. Arrange that no one will visit you and the phone won’t ring. Shut the door. This is important time for you to be alone with Śrīla Prabhupāda's book.

3. Make yourself comfortable, but not so comfortable that you’ll fall asleep. You may sit in a chair or on the floor; your goal is to arrange a situation where you can uninterruptedly concentrate on śāstra without physical distractions.

4. Take time to cultivate an appropriate attitude of approach to your reading. Again, the proper mood is to think that you will soon associate with Śrī Kṛṣṅa, through the potent transcendental words spoken by Śrīla Prabhupāda and other great Gauḍiyā ācāryas (spiritual masters in the line of Lord Śrī Caitanya). Therefore, your mood should be that of a soul in need of association, guidance, and mercy. Be humble.

5. Before starting, you may offer prayers to those you will associate within your reading, for example, Śrīla Prabhupāda, Śrī Śrī Guru and Gaurāṅga, or Śrī Śrī Rādhā and Kṛṣṅa. By their mercy your reading can assist in purifying and illuminating your consciousness.

6. When you’re ready, begin reading, aloud or silently, but slowly. You have already chosen where your reading will begin. It doesn’t matter where you stop, even if you read only a single sentence. This is not the time to “get through a chapter” or a specified section. Yet, if you are inspired to do so, you may read a larger amount of text. How much you complete may depend upon the book or section you are reading. Again, the purpose of this kind of reading is not quantity but meaningful association.

7. Read until a word, a phrase, or an idea strikes you or catches your attention. Stop at that point. You may repeat that meaningful phrase to yourself over and over. You may think aloud or silently about what you’ve read, but simple repetition often helps more to inspire insights. Repetition—going over a point a second or even a third time—can assist deep assimilation (and even memorization) of the point that caught your attention. Just stay with that point until you’ve meditated upon it enough or it no longer holds your attention. Pauses in reading may assist in deepening and assimilating what you have read.

Then move along, slowly reading again until another point strikes you as special. Repeat the process as often as you wish, or for as long as your allotted time allows.

8. There is no need to rigidly adhere to the above steps. They are offered as guidelines to assist you in getting started. If your reading inspires you to directly pray to or glorify Kṛṣṅa, His associates, and devotees, then do so. Our interest, again, is to accept the assistance of Prabhupāda's books so that we may actually become devotees.

9. When your time is up, offer obeisances and, if you like, words (either aloud or mentally) of appreciation for any realizations that may have been offered to you.

If we have been receptive, our reading will most probably have been successful and, as Śrīla Prabhupāda writes, “in each reading we shall find a new explanation. That is the nature of transcendental literature.”

10. As much as you can, assimilate into your life what you have read and realized. If this method of reading suits you, read Śrīla Prabhupāda's books in this fashion regularly—daily, weekly, each Ekādaśī, monthly, occasionally. You may also wish to keep a journal to help you recall your thoughts.

Bhūrijana Dāsa joined ISKCON in 1968 and has been active in ISKCON education since the late 1970s.

Encouragement from Śrīla Prabhupāda

In these excerpts from letters to his disciples, Śrīla Prabhupāda stresses the importance of regular reading of the scriptures.

I am requesting all of my students to read my books very seriously every day without fail. In this way, if your mind becomes absorbed at least one or two hours daily in the transcendental subject matter of Srimad-Bhagavatam, Bhagavad-gītā, and other books then very easily you will make your advancement in Krishna consciousness. (June 13, 1972)

I am stressing at this point that all of my students shall be very much conversant with the philosophy of Krishna consciousness, and that they should read our books very diligently at least one or two hours daily and try to understand the subject matter from varieties of angles. (June 16, 1972)

The instruction given in my books is supposed to be personal instruction. When we read the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, it is understood that we are receiving personal instructions of Krishna. No physical barrier is there in the case of spiritual affairs. (October 14, 1974)

In my books the philosophy of Krishna consciousness is explained fully, so if there is anything which you do not understand, then you simply have to read again and again. By reading daily the knowledge will be revealed to you....You may please me the most by reading my books and following the instructions therein. (November 22, 1974)