3 or 4 books are sufficient...Bhaktisiddhanta on which books to read

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This message is just for the information of the devotees on which books did

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta want his followers to read. Ofcourse we have to

understand his instructions through our founder-acarya Srila Prabhupada. But

it will be certainly help us to know what Srila Bhaktisiddhanta instructed

regarding reading books.

 

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He told the sannyasis and brahmacaris, "Don't keep many books with you.

Don't have big big libraries: Just three or four books are sufficient."

 

Sarasvati Thakura said that there were four books that every Gaudiya

Vaisnava should read: Caitanya Bhagavata by Vrndavana Dasa Thakura, Dasa

Mula Siksa by Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Sri Krsna Bhajanamrta by Narahari

Sarkara and Prema Bhakti Chandrika by Narottama Dasa Thakura. He said that

Caitanya Bhagavata should be read 100 times.

 

Sarasvati Thakura read both C.C. and C.B. 108 times and told others to do

likewise, expecting everyone to do that. Of course, it's doubtful if anyone

did, but the idea was meant to read again and again and absorb the mind in

Gauranga just as Mahaprabhu liked to hear the stories of Dhruva and Prahlada

Maharaja. Sarasvati Thakura said to read C.B. first then C.C., and then S.B.

The reason being that C.B is very easy reading for Bengali people because it

has no difficult philosophy and is mostly lila. C.C. is also very attractive

with some very difficult sections also. In the Srimad Bhagavatam the

language is difficult Sanskrit.

 

Once, when Jotisekhara was new in the Math, Sarasvati Thakura asked him if

he was reading C.B., when he said "No", he told him he should read it early

in the morning, before mangalarati, at 5.00am (Footnote: Jotisekhara said it

would be difficult for him to read so early, because he had a bad cough).

"Starting from tomorrow, you read from 4.00am - 5.00am. Read it clearly and

loudly and it will clear any cough in your throat." Sarasvati Thakura said

the C.B. and C.C., even though in Bengali verse, are full of all sastric

conclusions, and he recommended them, along with S.B. (especially the

sections on Dhruva Maharaja, Prahlada-charita, the story of Prahlada, and

Kapiladeva's instructions). He recommended all of these to be read 100

times.

 

He did not recommend reading the Gita and S.B., but C.B., except learned

scholars, whom he would recommend to read the Gita and S.B. For the ordinary

Bengali he recommended C.B. and Krsna Prema Tarangini, a Bengali verse

edition of S.B. by Bhagavatacarya, a disciple of Lord Caitanya.

 

Gaudiya Vaisnava scholars generally consider Caitanya-caritamrta to be the

most important biography of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, even more so than Caitanya

Bhagavata, in as much as it deals with: (a) the philosophy of Caitanya

Mahaprabhu in great detail and (b) the highest ecstasies of Caitanya

Mahaprabhu, which are referred to only somewhat in Caitanya Bhagavata.

 

Sarasvati Thakura himself would generally explain philosophy very deeply,

but he said that Caitanya Bhagavata is more important than

Caitanya-caritamrta for the common man because it is a lila-grantha. Without

describing so much about philosophy, it describes the lila of Caitanya

Mahaprabhu, and is therefore easy for the common man to follow and

understand the philosophy. Even though Sarasvati Thakura himself mostly

explained philosophy, he said that philosophy is only for the greatly

learned people, and for the common men Caitanya Bhagavata is more important.

So he said, "Read Caitanya Bhagavata from time to time." If anyone came to

him he would ask them if they had read Caitanya Bhagavata. He often asked

people this, including non-devotees. He recommended that for ordinary

people, the first Vaisnava literature they read be Caitanya Bhagavata. This

was, of course, because he was preaching mostly in Bengal and Orissa, so

this was special advice for them. He recommended to everyone to first read

Caitanya Bhagavata, then Prema Bhakti Chandrika, then Srimad Bhagavatam. He

recommended that Prema Bhakti Chandrika be translated and published and

distributed in different languages of the world. He said that in Prema

Bhakti Chandrika all of the siddhantas of the Goswamis were expressed.

 

O.B.L. Kapoor, being a learned scholar from Allahabad, the Hindi speaking

part of India, was instructed by Sarasvati Thakura to learn Bengali, so as

he could study the original Bengali texts of the Caitanya Bhagavata and the

Caitanya-caritamrta, etc. Sarasvati Thakura liked other Gaudiya Math members

who were also learned and non-Bengalis, to learn Bengali for this reason.

 

In Cuttack, Sarasvati Thakura was searching for Caitanya Bhagavata in 1920.

He searched through many mathas but couldn't find it. Nowadays, the Caitanya

Bhagavata is available everywhere in bookshops, but at that time it wasn't.

The sahajiyas didn't like the Caitanya Bhagavata, and called it a dry book.

They like Caitanya Caritamrta, Srimad Bhagavatam, etc., because they deal

with Radha Krsna lila, but Sarasvati Thakura published Caitanya Bhagavata -

Caitanya lila. At that time Caitanya Bhagavata was very rare in India. Even

available editions were full of errors. So, before Sarasvati Thakura's

edition there was no proper one.

 

Once, in Dhaka, he told Sundarananda Vidyavinoda to give a series of

lectures on the Gita in colleges. Although generally he would have people go

to the Bhagavatam or Vaisnava literatures immediately (of course the Gita is

also a Vaisnava literature but it is considered to be for beginners) - the

books which deal exclusively with bhakti and which are not used by other

schools, as the Caitanya Bhagavata, Prema Bhakti Chandrika, Srimad

Bhagavatam. These books Sarasvati Thakura recommended to people to go to

directly. (However, we should always remember that Sarasvati Thakura was

preaching in Orissa and Bengal, where most of the people who came to him

already had some background, or at least some understanding of Vaisnava

philosophy. His understanding was that the Gita was for the people in

varnasrama; karmis, jnanis, yogis; then they may come to bhakti. But in the

case of the people amongst whom he was preaching, he wanted them to take

directly to bhakti - don't get hung-up.)

 

>From Bhakti Vikasa Swami's notes on BSST

 

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