“You are restless because you don’t read. I am laboring so hard for you, but you don’t take advantage. Don’t take advantage of eating and sleeping. Take advantage of these books. Then your life will be successful. My duty–I have given you so valuable things, day and night trying to convince you, each word to word. And if you don’t take advantage of this, then what can I do for you?”
– Srila Prabhupada Lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam 2.9.14, Melbourne, April 13, 1972
There are many important reasons for the study of what I term “transcendental literature.”
We could cite Patanjali Sutras 2.44:
“From Svadhyaya (study of moksha shastras) a connection to one’s Ishta-Devata is established.”
This fact alone is perhaps reason enough. But many other reasons exist.
Bathing our senses and mundane consciousness in sacred transmissions helps one shift the awareness away from a chronic addiction to Ahamkara-centered perception and move towards the atmosphere of a Buddhi-centered perception in perpetual saturation with the radiance of the Atman.
The more we can focus awareness within a Buddhi-centered perspective, the more we can cultivate smriti (spiritual memory), shraddha (faith), and Bhakti. This allows our awareness to be purified within the spiritual lens of Buddhi revealing a radical reorientation of how the Ahamkara functions.
When this occurs our awareness can experience occasional glimpses of the Eternal Now. All this can happen with the opening of a book.
–
Sri Indra Ram-Das Aghori
TRANSMISSIONS FROM THE KALI YUGA 