CHAPTER FIVE
Knowledge of Sādhana While Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam have clearly established nāma-saṅkīrtana as the means for attaining perfection in this age, they also emphasise the study of scripture as an essential means to bring chanting to fruition. We see, therefore, that Śrīla Prabhupāda spent so much of his time in making the cream of Vaiṣṇava literature available to the world. His Divine Grace further emphasised to his followers the importance of studying his books and distributing them. Of these two instructions — studying and distributing his books — devotees in general are seen to be more enthusiastic about the latter than the former. Somehow the importance of reading and studying Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books and the works of other Vaiṣṇavas is, for one reason or another, lost on many devotees. And yet Kṛṣṇa makes an inseparable link between knowledge of His pastimes and activities, and a devotee’s ability to gain freedom from bad habits and so attain ecstatic devotion: vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodhā man-mayā mām upāśritāḥ bahavo jñāna-tapasā pūtā mad-bhāvam āgatāḥ “Being freed from attachment, fear, and anger, being fully absorbed in Me and taking refuge in Me, many, many persons in the past became purified by knowledge of Me, and thus they all attained transcendental love for Me.”1 In other words, freedom from bad habits and the development of attachment to Kṛṣṇa are very much dependent on knowledge of Him. That knowledge is of three kinds: 85
