Teach Yourself Slokas By Rohinandana dasa VRNDAVAN INSTITUTE FOR HIGHER EDUCATIONContents Preface........ ewes a kena se ene eENE s COREE EOS tree cree ee eT TAUSOAUCULON: « sacliew ss asmemes se kewebis's ¢ saiewes veasen Study Method........seeseeee sees esse ee ee eee eeeeeeeceeeeeeee eed How to learn a verse.... OERGE MACROS cis cvsise ss earcieus s neteansee « eaaaes s aaepinee ee seal The card system......... Suggested contents, lecture(1)...........-- om seavesaraseseu ai wren Suggested contents, lecture(2)..... sae EXOYGLEGS a5 « se/eneisy + Uaieesin + Haninw’s + enemies ¥eaeeiEs aos we eet List of Umbrella topics...........20000.e2000s meerencn’s « aswmerersd Lecture 1 : $.B 3.25.1......... cscs seen 28 HOCHUES 2 2 SLB, G2 Aswowss ssocwgss seven ook awaeOUIS 8 ween 38 Why learn verses?............22222eeeeeeeeee BLabiadeice aecen 43 | Some suggestions for learning verses............. seeeeeeeee 46 HemSry Chart. sanwdas + wennenis eimai» wesaties suas § g zeae A: Srila Prabhupada's quotes from Bhagavad gita ~-50 | Acknowledgements I would like to thank bhaktins Vimala Rani, Ellen MacCarthy and bhakta Jayesh Saujani. for their kind help in preparing thi manuscript, Gopifvari .prabhu.for her illustrations and Vinod Taank for printing itPreface "Focusing" Picture yourself driving through an unfamiliar town. Buildings loom up from nowhere and race by, only to disappear in quick succession. Intersecting streets also flash by to the left and right. You catch glimpses of their pavements and terraced houses extending beyond immediate perception in a seemingly vast, complex maze. You are not sure where you are or where you will end up. The traffic behind forces you to go on and on. Your mind begins to spin. However, if yeu regularly drive through the town, yoo will naturally begin to feel less uneasy and more at home. Your initial conception of a blurred homogenous mass of streets and buildings will gradually clarify to an awareness of the distinction of one street from another. Simultaneously you will-begin to discern similarities - different branches of the same store chain, similar architecture, petrol stations, parks and schools. ‘Yeu won't feel so lost anymore. Some things in particular may catchyour attention - a statue, a clever advert or an attractive house - which, from that time on, you always tend to notice as you go by. One day you may even stop the car to take a closer look at something. The town in our analogy represents the forty five verses quoted by Srila Prabhupada in the two lectures transcribed herein. First and subsequent impressions of hearing Srila Prabhupada quote so many Sanskrit verses may be likened to the above experience. Unfamiliar sounds at first appear to come from nowhere and rush by. We may feel lost in a maze of unrecognizable, apparently unrelated sound. Over awed by the vastness of the new language, culture and concepts, our minds may feel stunned, unable to focus on any particular verse or word, But, as we listen to the lecture tape a few times,() we"'gradually perceive distinct words and verses. One or two words in particular may stand out, and we will tend to notice them each time we get to the place in the lecture where they are quoted. We may stop the tape and replay Srila Prabhupada quoting a word, or a verse, to listen more closely. We may also notice other verses in which the same or a similar word appears, and our observation will be accompanied by a sense of happy familiarity. We will begin to untangle the knot of our confusion and recognize the relationship between the sounds. To return to our analogy of the town of forty five verses): once one feature of a street is recognized we will gradually become aware of other features as well. The colour, the shapes, the signs all combine differently to make each street unique. Likewise each verse is unique in its (1) Which is advisable even before embarking on this “Teach Yourself Slokas" course. (2) Actually this town of spiritual culture is the real hame of the living being. Hunan Life is meant for reviving the lost memory of our eternal hone beyond the confines of matter. By Lord Kegna's kindness, direct perception of our lost home, in which He is the master, is available to us in the form of transcendental sound. Submissive hearing automatically transports a soul to the threshold of the house of love of God.