When should devotees read non-devotional books?

Question, how much should devotees read non-devotional books? Answer, there is no should over here. Sri Prabhupada didn’t really present Krishna Consciousness as a rigid set of do’s and don’ts. He focused more on helping us develop Krishna Consciousness.

And our primary reading should be reading of Shastra, so that we can become convinced about the practices of Bhakti and also learn how to practice Bhakti better, so that we can develop love for Krishna. That is what should be our focus in terms of reading. Now apart from that, we could say other reading could fall in three different categories.

One is that we may need to read some other things for our particular services. If somebody wants to start a school and they want to get a school for devotee kids and they want to get some certification, they may need to learn certain things about educational policies, they may need to get some certification for themselves as teachers or as teaching administrators. Similarly, if you want to build a temple, you may need to learn something about architecture apart from hiring architects, you need to know something basic.

So we may need to learn some principles for our particular services. If somebody wants to learn writing, they may want to read some books on writing. So first is for our services.

And second is that sometimes for our own self-understanding. We can, through the principles of Ananashram, we can understand our Varna. And that’s one valuable psychological or psychophysical categorization for self-understanding.

But there are many other frameworks available. And sometimes these could be helpful for us to understand ourselves better. So, especially if one is finding oneself in a very incompatible or uncomfortable situation, then we need to know ourselves ultimately in terms of the soul that we are.

But also we need to know ourselves in terms of the body-mind machine that we presently have, so that we can use it properly in Krishna service. So if someone is more of an introvert or someone is more of an extrovert, they need to see what services they can take up, or what kind of situation they can find shelter and strength in, so that they can practice their bhakti best. So for certain self-understanding, at the level of our nature or the level of the kind of mind that we have, some people may need to read something for that.

So, in the first category of our service, if we are living in the world and we are interacting with the world, a certain level of awareness of the world may be required as a matter of service. So, if you are living in a particular part of the world, what is the geopolitical situation in the vicinity? What is the religious undercurrents or tensions? Whether we need to read books for that? It’s not as important as that we need to be aware of those situations. So, beyond our service and our self-understanding, a third could be that some people may just have an intellectual nature and they may have a lot of intellectual curiosity.

So, for them, reading is just their nature. And they read on diverse subjects. And their reading on those subjects does not adversely affect their scriptural reading.

They were voracious readers before they came to Bhakti. And we cannot suddenly expect them to rigidly reduce their reading to only scriptural or devotional books. They will read that and they will read that voraciously.

But they may sometimes have an appetite for reading other things. It’s like somebody was very much into music before they came to Bhakti. And now they come to Bhakti.

They will naturally want to enthusiastically participate in any musical events or musical service associated with Bhakti. But just because they have become devotees now, doesn’t necessarily mean that they will be musically satisfied only with the kind of tunes and the kind of singing and the kind of instruments that are used in Bhakti, traditionally or contemporarily in the moment. They may want to see what kind of music is currently trending and whether they could compose something based on that, which is devotionally compatible.

So, everybody, based on their particular nature, will have a particular kind of appetite. And that appetite needs to be fulfilled. It cannot be artificially restricted.

So, for such people, based on the particular areas of interest or curiosity they have, they may read in those areas. And based on that, they can learn and they can grow. So, that would mean that they may become more, in future, public intellectuals where they can offer scriptural commentary on current issues or they may themselves be able to connect Krishna Conscious Wisdom with many different areas of life.

And depending on the particular intellectual nature of that person, either they may be very diverse in reading a wide variety of things or they may be very specific in going deep into one field or there may well be a combination of both where they are widely read in many fields and deeply read in one field. So, that’s how it’s not a matter of should. Should one read or not read? It’s more a matter of what helps one to best achieve the ultimate purpose of life which is to develop our love for Krishna and progress towards Him while making the best contribution during our journey in this world, in this life.