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Reading books other than Srila Prabhupada's

• Subject: Reading books other than Srila Prabhupada's
• From: David J
• Date: Fri Dec 22 10:40:59 1995
• Message-Id: id667

Dear David

Thanks for visiting my web site and you letter.

There is no alternative to Krishna conscousness. It is the perfect description of
the Absolute Truth, Lord Sri Krishna. It is fantastic that you are attached to
reading Srila Prabhupada's books. Sravanam, or hearing, is the most imporant
thing. If we hear material sound vibrations we become materialistic but if we hear
transcendental sound vibrations our consciousness becomes purified and our dormant
love for Krishna is reawakened.

Krishna consciousness is not something new, something we have to learn, rather it
is the eternal nature of the soul. It has simply become covered over by our many,

many lifetimes in the material world. So we have to uncover our original Krishna
consciousness and the process is hearing. We can hear the Srimad Bhagavatam and we
can also hear the chanting of the maha-mantra: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna
Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

In the beginning it can be a little difficult. We may not be so attached to
chanting and reading because of our material contamination, that is why the
beginning of Krishna consciousness is called "saddhana bhakti", it means following
the rules an regulations. That is the beginning stage. We have to decide to follow
the four regulative principles (no illicit sex, no intoxication, no meat eating
and no gambling) and chant at least 16 rounds a day. This combined with reading
the Srimad Bhagavatam is a very powerful process indeed.

As far as the books of Bhaktivinode Thakura and Srila Bhaktisiddanta, Srila
Prabhupada didn't encourage his disciples to read them. Everything is in Srila
Prabhupada's books. It is not that we have to go seraching eleswhere to find the
things Prabhupada didn't tell us. He told us everything. You also have to consider
the consciousness and motivation of the translator. There are so many translations
of Bhagavad-gita in English... but in almost all of them the pure message of
Krishna consciousness is not presented. The translator has injected his own ideas.
So the same thing happens with other books as well. The translator also has to be
a pure devotee.

And it is just the beginning... So many devotees read so many outside books. It
may start with a book by Bhaktivinode... but there are so many books... It is not
approved by Srila Prabhupada.

I wrote a couple of letters to one Bhakta and one of them is in my archive (you
can get into it from my home page) under the heading "Preaching to ISKCON
devotees". You might like to read that and comment on it.

Srila Prabhupada didn't "ban" these books, but he saw a tendancy among some of his
disciples to read so many outside books without even reading his books... We have
to take shelter of Srila Prabhupada and the best way to do this is to read his
books. Srila Prabhupada, however, did ban the books of his godbrothers.

Personally, I am happy with Srila Prabhupada's books. He has given us the
teachings of the sampradiya, he has repeated the teachings of Srila Bhaktivinode
and Srila Bhaktsiddhanta and he has put it in a language and style that is very
accessable to us. There is every chance that if we read other books we will
misunderstand some things and that could cause serious problems in our devotional
life...

Thanks for the letter.

Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!

Madhudvisa dasa


>Sudarshana das:
>I have just started to visit your Web page and must say that I am very
>impressed.  Your posted artical "What happened to the Hare Krishnas" was
>very informative.
>Let me get a little backgroung info out of the way:
>My name is David Johnson, and Im 23 years old.
>Im currently employed in Worcester Mass. USA at the Worcester Public
>Schools as a computer programmer/support specialist.  I graduated from
>the University of New Hampshire (BA Physics/BA Philosophy) in Dec 94.
>
>I became interested in Krishna Con. back in 92, when I first saw that our
>library (UNH) had Srimad Bhagavatam. I began reading some, but it never
>seemed to click with me.  Later , (93-94) I came in possession of some of
>Srila Prabhupada's books (Sri Isopanishad, Sci. of Self-Real.) and became
>more interested.  I began to voraciously read these books.
>
>After graduating from school, I got my first chance to visit a temple,
>the Boston temple on Ramachandra's appearance day.  I have returned a few
>times, but I still can not say that I am "Won over". I have, however,
>aquired a Srimad Bhagavatam set, and am going to try and finish it by

>Dec. 96.
>
>Now for my question.  In your article, you quoted Srila Prabhupada as
>telling devotees not to read books by his god-brothers.  Now while I am
>not a devotee, I do have a strong interest in KC, and have bought from
>"Krishna Culture" (distributers of KC stuff here) some books from the
>Gaudyia Math,India. which are translations of Bhaktivinode Thakura, and
>Srila Bhaktisiddanta.  Should Srila Prabhupada be read as "banning" these
>books?
>Sorry, this would be longer, but Im at work and have to go.
>Thank You
>David Johnson
>
>
>

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