Even a Paragraph, A Sentence, A Word

We want to remember what Prabhupada has written and repeat it to audiences wherever we go.  His teachings are memorable truths.  Other writers may dazzle us with their presentations, but we don’t want to memorize them.  Their so-called truths are not worth repeating.  Srila Prabhupada’s writing is powerful truth, and because it is powerful, he can utter it with calmness, restraint, and simplicity.  Srila Prabhupada himself is a modest person, but he carries the mantle of the pure devotee of Krishna.

Even one paragraph of Srila Prabhupada’s writing is worth studying and restudying.  Often just a small section of a paragraph will expose the complicated waste and misuse of energy that the non-devotees engage in.  His writing cannot be read with complacency if one wants to get the full effect of his preaching.  Srila Prabhupada is too dynamic a writer to read him in a casual way:

The material scientists – the quasi-priests who invoke such material activities – invent many objects to gratify the material senses, including the eye, ear, nose, skin, tongue, and ultimately the mind, and in this way the scientists create a field of unnecessary competition for enhancement of material happiness, which leads the whole world into the whirlpool of uncalled-for clashes.  The net result is scarcity all over the world, so much so that even the bare necessities of life, namely, food, shelter and clothing, become objects of contention and control.  And so there arise all sorts of obstacles to the traditional, God-given life of plain living and high thinking.
– Message of Godhead, p. 39

If we take the time to read with submissive aural reception, we will find gems like this studded throughout Prabhupada’s pages.  Prabhupada is solid and brilliant at every step.  He never slows down – he is always faithfully repeating Krishna’s message with heartfelt conviction.  If we fail to get nourishment from Prabhupada’s writing, we can understand that we are lacking.  One way to remedy this is to slow down when we read – take each sentence by itself, then look at it in context.  For his disciples, Prabhupada’s writing is the essence of our lives.  It is where we find our link to Krishna and become spiritually revived.