Reading, Writing, Thinking
BY: BHAKTA ALEX
Feb 13, USA (SUN) — Response to "Let Us Avoid the Ditch" by Ravi dasa.
Dear Ravi Prabhu, I agree with you about the value of reading Srila Prabhupada’s books. I read them. Srila Prabhupada also encouraged devotees to write, and I read some of that also.
"Realization means you should write, every one of you, what is your realization. What for this Back to Godhead is? You write your realization, what you have realized about Krsna. That is required. It is not passive. Always you should be active. Whenever you find time, you write. Never mind, two lines, four lines, but you write your realization. Sravanam kirtanam, writing or offering prayers, glories. This is one of the function of the Vaisnava. You are hearing, but you have to write also. Then write means smaranam, remembering
what you have heard from your spiritual master, from the scripture." (Srila Prabhupada, Los Angeles, August 14th, 1972)
It seems to me that book Srila Prabhupada: The Prominent Link is written in the spirit of the above quote. We read Srila Prabhupada's books, and we have realizations. Realizations can be shared, and issues can be explored from various angles of vision.
Srila Prabhupada's teachings can help to guide us as we read and hear the thoughts, opinions, and realizations of other devotees. I'm increasingly convinced about the value of carefully considering the things that we read and hear, rather than whimsically accepting them, or whimsically rejecting them. In his 1972 letter to Karandhara, Srila Prabhupada states: "Krishna Consciousness Movement is for training men to be independently thoughtful..."
We can read, we can write, and we can think.
