STUDYING SRIMAD BHAGAVATAM

You can go canto by canto or section by section.

Whatever way you read, the follg simple procedure can be adopted.
First give a fast reading of the whole section, say Bhishmadeva.
While giving fast reading, note down the following :
Golden purports purports with many solid philosophical points
Golden slokas slokas that are helpful for PeA or PrA
Some striking point that you found MELTING your heart

Now give a second reading of the same section and do the following :

Make Section titles and categorize the whole chapter for convenient reading and rememberance.
This time give a deep reading, underlining important lines of the purport that you may want to note down
in your note book and use in preaching.
Give titles to Golden purports and Golden slokas
Take the sections that were HEART MELTING and write them down into your own note book. Now sit in
solitude and contemplate on the point based on how it applies in your personal life, how there are similar
or opposite examples in sastras, how it applies to the world around you. Make some resolutions in your
mind and if possible in your note book to bring about an improvement. A practical example is here :
Indra was envious of Pruthu and Pruthu was angry with Indra. SP writes there that sometimes there is a
fight amongst two vaishnavas and one should adjust the situation and avoid the fight and push on with the
mission of Guru. Pruthu successfully became humble and won the heart of the Lord.
Now (although it may be time consuming) it would be very valuable to make a notes of the entire chapter
in your computer or notebook with all the highlighted slokas, purport points, titled slokas & purports,
heart-melting points and ref to SP pastimes, CM pastimes, SB ref etc. This notes is now ready for use.
Unless you preach it somewhere you will not be able to hold it in your mind for a long time. A knife
unused and a cracked pot filled with water for a long time are of no use. Preach it and you can remember
it. Preach it second time and youll start hearing it yourself. Preach and hear what you said and youll
feel ashamed that youre not upto the mark. Continue hearing it again and again and your conviction to
change will be nourished by the Supersoul. Our sincerity, determination, conviction, transformation all
improve with sincere study of scriptures and endeavouring to explain the same to others enthusiastically
as a representative of our spiritual master.

Now often people write notes and throw it away here and there; when they need it after some years,
theyll have to make the notes all over again. This is a waste of time. One who is organized in preserving
these notes will find the wisdom coming out fresh by referring to a notes made years ago on a particular
chapter of SB. So preserve the notes. Youve made it with great difficulty.
As we study SB, BG, CC and keep preparing notes, over a period of time our treasury of wisdom
increases and it becomes easy to speak on a topic suitable to a particular audience by pulling down one of
the sections/topics/stories from that treasury. One who does not keep increasing the treasury remains a
beggar. So regular study of scriptures is very important.
after studying most of BG and SB, we can also read Mahabharata Ramayana Chanakya neeti
Upadesha Upakhyana SP stories Pancha tantra and also pastimes of SP from Lilamrta and other
books. This will enrich our earlier understanding of scriptures especially w.r.t. Mood + Mission, Faith +
Conviction.
Now at this stage, there is a new worry that will crop up in our minds : Ive become a BIG talker, but
hardly a practitioner. People pamper me and flatter me for my big talks, but I know where I am; I have no
good qualities, no humility, no simplicity; in this way, I have simply become a PROFESSIONAL
PREACHER. O Krishna, please save me from this dangerous snake of puja, labha and pratishta. I am not
a pundit, I am not a charishmatic preacher, I am a fool and a rascal making a big show. Let me speak
something for my purification. Now is the time for developing this type of PRAYERFUL ATTITUDE.
This will give abundant purification of heart and for the first time well start relishing the sastras in our
heart.
Now study the sastras from a different perspective not for preaching to others, but for satisfying your
innermost longing to attain the shelter of Guru and Krishna. This reading is called as pasittiru tanittitu
vizhittiru by one great tamil devotee acharya. The meaning of these three terms is be hungry be
alone be awake and alert in reading. A hungry man will gulp down the food with great vigor and full
satisfaction, but if you give food to a man who has just now eaten a full meal and giving out a birp, he
may ask you what is the menu. Similarly, we need spiritual hunger while approaching sastras. That is
reading sastras with great taste, relish, rasa putting oneself in the role of the characters like Vidura,
Uddhava, gopis, Pandavas etc. Such reading is powerful and absorbing and can make one forget the
material world. Secondly, read alone means forget all your upadhis or designations as President,
Temple commander, educated, engineer etc. Become detached and aloof from all these bogus
designations and stay in the presence of feet of Guru and Krishna and read scriptures with a submissive
attitude with no motives. Thirdly be alert means dont read scriptures unconsciously or with dull
attitude. Read them with full enthusiasm. Have a attentive ear and a open heart in approaching sastras.
Keep a heart that is humble in attitude and soft and tender like butter. This is very conducive for thorough
hearing and absorption. Learn to forget the material problems at least at the time of studying scriptures
and be alert to the section being read.
At this stage a devotee will become blissful, fearless, anxiety-free like a carefree child. All his activities
will be for the pleasure of guru and Krishna and his heart will be constantly absorbed in remembrance of
Krishna. The holy name will erupt from his heart and dance in his toungue. This is REAL HEARING.