I would like to know what are your techniques and practices to study BG, SB or CC. Do you use study guides? Do you just read and take notes? How do you organize the notes you gather?
Imho, one of the best ways how to learn sastra is to translate it. You cannot translate what you don't understand, right? Thus you're forced to communicate with those in the know and in this way you often learn from sources not available in English like some acarya commentaries. So learn another language well and join the BBT. All its resources will be available to you.
At the beginning of our VEDA site were my study notes.
I'm really not that scholarly as many of you, but yes, I usually have Vedabase Folio open alongside a MSword document to type in (or paste in) the main points. Usually I like compiling them in the bulleted form, chapter-wise or topic-wise. Thats the way I like preparing even for any lecture/discourse.
The best way for me to remember some concept or slokas is: - learning them word for word, with the meaning. (in the case of a sloka i try to understand every quadrant individually) - try relating the concept or sloka to some event or situation in our everyday life - Then it sticks on forever
Studying in small groups also helps a lot. Not more than 5 people (provided all are in the same wavelength in mindset, eagerness to learn)
I was reading another book on Memory Power - and the method suggested for remembering things is linking those (to-be-learnt) concepts to something that we already know.
1. write the mantra down clearly and stick it in the wall visible. 2. every day read it, do not try to learn it, just say it aloud. 3. in a few weeks you will not need the paper and will know it by heart.
I know one devotee that woke up early every morning and sang the whole Bhagavad Gita with nice melodies. He said that after a while chapters became like songs and it was not so difficult to know it by heart.
He was born in a Sri Vaisnava family so "dont try this at home".
Thank you for these wonderful tips... this is certainly 'nectarean'... to say the least.
I have found that it is extremely useful for my understanding to write your own study guide, meaning you may do a whole 'summarised' guide following another guide or the text itself. For this certainly, the notebook is fundamental.
Some devotees complain that even after years of reading the whole text is not definitely 'digested'. This is sometimes observed in classes where the context of the verse is lost and the speaker goes off in tangents. Of course there are 'realisations', but in the didactic sense we need to keep the contexts, isn't?
Another thing is to 'listen' to the books read (on CDs, Mp3s, etc). This is a good option. My good friend Ekendra overloaded me with such recordings, so now, I have no trouble hearing to the -whatever- book I'm studying.
Exactly, studying means Prabhupada books on one side and a pen and paper on the other. Not just reading. I have also found making your own study guides very helpful.
