Radheshyam das, ISKCON, PUNE, iyfpune@vsnl.

com, Trainee Preachers Forum (TPF)

How to read and make notes effectively

from books and lectures
Objectives of Effective Scriptural Study
1. Knowledge (memory and recall) {Kno}
One should be able to :
Recall and repeat important verses, facts, concepts, analogies, philosophical points etc
according to :
 their location within scripture and
 their relevance to specific subjects or themes

2. Understanding {Und}

One should be able to :

 Explain the content of scripture in one’s own words
 Relate contents of scripture to one’s own experience
 Compare key concepts, slokas, stories, analogies etc
 Explain the implications of any concept or its application
 Synthesise and draw well balanced conclusions
 Resolve apparent contradictions
 Present answers logically and systematically.

3. Personal Application {PeA}

One should be able to :

 Select material that is relevant to one’s personal lives and situation one meets
 Explain how the scripture applies to one’s own life
 Identify room for personal improvement based on scripture
 Demonstrate a willingness to change his/her opinion or outlook or behaviour on the basis
of scripture and to avoid misusing scripture for reinforcing wrong worldviews.
 Express doubts and vaishnava values

4. Preaching Application {PrA}

One should be able to :

 Select scriptural references appropriate to the topic
 Express sastric understanding in one’s own words
 Present points suitable to the audience making the topic accessible
 Remain faithful to sastric conclusions
 Present sound logical arguments

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare 1
 Radheshyam das, ISKCON, PUNE, iyfpune@vsnl.com, Trainee Preachers Forum (TPF)
 Demonstrate values such as compassion or tact as needed
 Demonstrate academic integrity.

5. Faith and Conviction {F+C}

One should be able to :

 Demonstrate Faith in the sastra
 Describe how the practices and principles given in scripture work for them (and not
simply everyone else)
 Reasonably explain why they are convinced
 Develop reasonable faith and not blind faith
 Honestly express doubts even of elementary facts and concepts
 Express their faith or realisation in their own words

6. Authority {Aut}

One should be able to :

 Demonstrate acceptance of the authority of sastra

 Explain with reason and logic the need to accept Vedic authority
 Explain why they personally accept Vedic authority
 Explain with reference to sastra, the need for a mood of open and honest inquiry
 Dealing with apparently contradictory statements or those that appear to contradict
commonsense, modern science etc
 Examine and explore the content of scripture from a wide range of perspectives

7. Theological Application {ThA}

One should be able to :

 Select references appropriate to a range of moral, social, topical, personal issues
 Relevance of KC theology in modern setting

8. Evaluation {Eva}

One should be able to :

 Demonstrate awareness of the need to consider the consequences of any action.
 Consider apparently conflicting references and to still draw a conclusion, preferebly
consistent with both.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare 2
 Radheshyam das, ISKCON, PUNE, iyfpune@vsnl.com, Trainee Preachers Forum (TPF)
9. Mood and Mission {M+M}

One should be able to :

 Explain how a verse or purport or statement relates to and/or reflects Srila Prabhupada’s
mood and mission
 Evaluate Srila Prabhupada’s conduct and his attitude towards practice or rules and
regulations in the light of GV theology.
 Identify the main principles upon which Srila Prabhupada’s mission is built and relate
these to corresponding scriptural references.
 Apply scripture to compare and contrast attitudes and behviour worthy of members of
ISKCON with those which are inappropriate.

10. Academic and Moral Integrity {AMI }

One should be able to list and explain the common ways of misusing scripture

11. Responsibility for Learning {RfL}

One should be able to :

 Demonstrate heart-felt appreciation of scriptural verses, passages, study, the contribution
that SP, ISKCON, Lord and parampara have made to our lives.
 Enthusiastically relate the contents of scripture to their personal lives
 Demonstrate an ability to study by themselves and to initiate taking guidance from others
or learning with others when needed
 Take initiative in developing own study methods

12. Sastra Cakshus or Realisation {SC}

One should be able to :

 Recall and apply verses appropriate to situations in which they find themselves
 Identify KC verses, stories etc related to things of the world
 Demonstrate correct vaishnava attitudes and perspectives towards situations
 Demonstrate appreciation of how Krishna working in and through the world
 Identify KC truths, principles, values etc in other philosophies and in other aspects of
human culture or literatures
 Explain their own realisation of sastra relating it to their own experience and
demonstrating integrity of thought, word, feeling and action.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare 3
 Radheshyam das, ISKCON, PUNE, iyfpune@vsnl.com, Trainee Preachers Forum (TPF)

How to benefit the most from the classes that we hear ?

Many of us must have attended hundreds of SB or BG classes; but how much of those
classes do we remember? Let us ask why do we hear such classes : for knowledge, for
purification, for advancement in KC, for stability in KC, for preaching to others, for
remembering Krishna always and especially at the time of death.

First of all, we should worry about the quality of our hearing. Is it selective, pretending,
inattentive or name-sake hearing or we are hearing the class with full enthusiasm ? If we are
serious about remembering what we hear, then we have to know that Memory is a function
of the mind and also a product of attention or Concentration.

Everyone in the world has to concentrate to succeed in what one does. For example,
Think about the pictures of tigers and lions hunting for food. They are still, head down and
ears flat, in complete concentration, before they leap on their prey. If they did not
concentrate, they would not be able to catch even a small rabbit to eat!
For their part, the deer put their heads up, their ears twitching this way and that way,
listening. If they sense their hunter nearby, they grow still, concentrating, ready to flee. This
watchfulness, continuous and concentrated, saves their lives because many of them are able
to run away just in time.

 When you concentrate in class, what the preacher says enters your “memory bank” and
stays there. Then half your work is done because when you go home you have to revise
for only a short while.
 If you do not pay full attention, you have to study the same thing over to remember it.
This will leave you little time to do anything else.

How can we Train our memory ?

There are two methods of training memory :

ASSIMILATIVE METHOD MNEMONICS

Learning or remembering by heart by
developing so great an interest in it that it
becomes a part of ourselves, like the food
which we digest and assimilate
For constructive or Creative work
We learn `by heart’ bringing reason
Assimilate the knowledge which we wish
to retain and recall at will
For instance, when we learn to swim or to
drive a car, we repeat movements
occurring in a close sequence.
Mechanical repetition of words & actions
We learn by `rote repetition’
Knack of fixing and recalling details of a
fact like memorising a poem

It is wrong to think that by just sticking to the poem and repeating it endlessly, one can
memorise it (concentration for a length of time always tires the mind).

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare 4
 Radheshyam das, ISKCON, PUNE, iyfpune@vsnl.com, Trainee Preachers Forum (TPF)
Example : Read the following paragraph which has been taken from the purport of Srila
Prabhupada’s Bhagavad gita As it is 16.1. Find out how you can take in the information
into your memory :
In the varnasrama institution the sannyasi, or the person in the renounced order of life, is considered to be the
head or the spiritual master of all the social statuses and orders. A brahmana is considered to be the spiritual
master of the three other sections of a society, namely, the ksatriyas, the vaisyas and the sudras, but a
sannyasi, who is on the top of the institution, is considered to be the spiritual master of the brahmanas also.
For a sannyasi, the first qualification should be fearlessness. Because a sannyasi has to be alone without any
support or guarantee of support, he has simply to depend on the mercy of the Supreme Personality of
Godhead. If he thinks, "After I leave my connections, who will protect me?" he should not accept the
renounced order of life. One must be fully convinced that Krsna or the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His
localized aspect as Paramatma is always within, that He is seeing everything and that He always knows what
one intends to do. One must thus have firm conviction that Krsna as Paramatma will take care of a soul
surrendered to Him. "I shall never be alone," one should think. "Even if I live in the darkest regions of a forest I
shall be accompanied by Krsna, and He will give me all protection." That conviction is called abhayam, without
fear. This state of mind is necessary for a person in the renounced order of life.

Then he has to purify his existence. There are so many rules and regulations to be followed in the renounced
order of life. Most important of all, a sannyasi is strictly forbidden to have any intimate relationship with a
woman. He is even forbidden to talk with a woman in a secluded place. Lord Caitanya was an ideal sannyasi,
and when He was at Puri His feminine devotees could not even come near to offer their respects. They were
advised to bow down from a distant place. This is not a sign of hatred for women as a class, but it is a stricture
imposed on the sannyasi not to have close connections with women. One has to follow the rules and
regulations of a particular status of life in order to purify his existence. For a sannyasi, intimate relations with
women and possession of wealth for sense gratification are strictly forbidden. The ideal sannyasi was Lord
Caitanya Himself, and we can learn from His life that He was very strict in regards to women. Although He is
considered to be the most liberal incarnation of Godhead, accepting the most fallen conditioned souls, He
strictly followed the rules and regulations of the

sannyasa order of life in connection with association with woman. One of His personal associates, namely
Chota Haridasa, was personally associated with Lord Caitanya along with His other confidential personal
associates, but somehow or other this Chota Haridasa looked lustily on a young woman, and Lord Caitanya was
so strict that He at once rejected him from the society of His personal associates. Lord Caitanya said, "For a
sannyasi or anyone who is aspiring to get out of the clutches of material nature and trying to elevate himself to
the spiritual nature and go back home, back to Godhead, for him, looking toward material possessions and
women for sense gratification—not even enjoying them, but just looking toward them with such a propensity--
is so condemned that he had better commit suicide before experiencing such illicit desires." So these are the
processes for purification.

How to digest the above material ?

• Read it over and over again at least twice.

• You can infer that the topic speaks about the qualifications of a sannyasi.
• It mainly focusses on Fearlessness and Purifying one’s existence.

• Under fearlessness there are three points : {F+C}

 Sannyasi has to be alone and depend on the Supreme personality of Godhead
 He should be convinced that Paramatma is within and knows our intentions
 He should think, “Krishna is always with me and He will protect me”.

• Under purification of existence, there are the following points : {M+M}

 Sannyasi is forbidden to speak with a woman in a secluded place (eg) Caitanya
 At Puri, his feminine devotees offered respect from a distance.
 He banished Chota Haridasa from the association of devotees for lusty look
 Caitanya’s statement : “Looking at Women and wealth for enjoying condemned”

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare 5
 Radheshyam das, ISKCON, PUNE, iyfpune@vsnl.com, Trainee Preachers Forum (TPF)
The above method of reading is ASSIMILATIVE and if one learns to remember things in order, the
impressions in the mind can be strongly stored and reproduced whenever required. After
becoming thorough, one may read over again to add more finer details into memory. The same
might take several hours or even days to digest by rote repetition or cramming.

How can we Develop our memory power ?

In considering helps to memory, anything which helps us to fix a thought in our mind can
usefully be employed. For example, a drama actor may learn long passages by going to a
quiet spot and shouting his words to the skies. Or he may just look at the typewritten script
and picture the words in his mind, accompanying them by gestures which are extremely
useful in helping his memory.

To memorise anything, the first and most important thing is to give our whole and
undivided attention to what we wish to remember. The more consciously anything is
realised or pictured, the more deeply it is imprinted upon the memory. For example,
somebody may ask you, “Show me God”. You can think of an analogy : “I can show you
God, but have you got the eyes to see ? How can you see God with your imperfect eyes ?
What is the use of a mirror for a blind man ?” Picturise this example in your mind and
remember it. Then you’ll never forget it.

What are the Obstacles to the creating of a good memory ?

Emotional forgetting : Memory is intertwined with the heart as well as the head. For
instance, we may forget something which a person whom we dislike has told us, because it is
linked with him. Similarly we may find it difficult to recall some newspaper article we have
read, because it dealt with a topic which is distasteful to us.
Laziness : When we are listening to someone who is boring, or we ask ourselves: “of what
use is that talk to me ?” Data slip off our mind like anything on a greasy surface simply due
to the enemy of sheer laziness.
Mental Exhaustion : This is indirectly due to our own negligence. Concentration alone
will not help. If we concentrate too long upon one subject, our mental faculties get tired. In
the state of exhaustion, what we try to remember just escapes us. Therefore for steady
concentration, it is best to have regular brief intervals.

What are the Requirements for the memory to function well ?

Interest : The first requirement for a good memory is interest. Once there is interest, one
can arrange the parts and make a whole. This is order.
Good Health : For the memory to function well, we should be in good health. Over-work,
over-feeding, over-drinking, all have a bad effect on memory.
Free from Worry : When we are worried our mind is chasing one thought after another in a
circle and the result is confusion. To remember, we must be free from worry.
Free from Absent-mindedness : Each year many thousands of people leave things behind
in buses and trains. Absent-mindedness is just day-dreaming or aimless drifting of the mind
due to laziness. If a person is habitually absent-minded, he never pays attention because his
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare 6
 Radheshyam das, ISKCON, PUNE, iyfpune@vsnl.com, Trainee Preachers Forum (TPF)
mind is indisciplined and disorderly. The only remedy here is to begin at the bottom of the
effort, with interest and seriousness.

Is there any Method to train our memory to become more efficient ?

Acquire the habit of learning in ORDER. Nothing plays so vital a part in training memory
as habit. Our fixed habits are all examples of memory in action. We learn to ride a bicycle,
to button our clothes, to dress without thinking of them. These actions have become
automatic because we have learnt how to do them. We have memorised the way of
performing them. They have become easy because of repetition, on the basis of order.
Order is the foundation of all efficiency. It means tidiness and precise arrangement of our
mental furniture. In our minds there is plenty of `fake furniture’. For instance,

• we use words wrongly.

For example, we may say, “We are unable to become Krishna conscious because of
the ill effects of kali yuga” although you actually wanted to say, “The ill-effects of kali
yuga are there ; still we DON’T HAVE A STRONG DESIRE to become Krishna
conscious”. These two sentences mean just the opposite.
• we are inaccurate or unspecific in our knowledge
Sometimes you know something about Krishna killing Putana. You may not remember
details like the rakshashi form of Putana (stomach like dried up well, breast like
mountain, thighs like river bank, 12 miles long body etc.,).
• Our minds are choked with false and vague impressions
Most people use only a fraction of their ability to observe and listen. They are no
better than photographers who take pictures without bothering to focus the camera.
Since the registration itself is poor, the retention or recalling of such images (and that
is what memory is about) is worse.

Therefore for clear thinking and clear remembering our minds must have neatly arranged
knowledge.
Our mind is clear when there is
• Interest
• Accuracy of knowledge and
• Relationship of ideas

Relationship of Ideas

For example, you may discuss about the topic on importance of association with devotees.
You may tell the story of Mrigari, the hunter. You can immediately think of similar ideas :
Valmiki’s association with Narada, Narada’s association with Bhaktivedantas, demoniac
children’s association with Bhakta Prahlada etc., You can also think of opposite ideas : bad
association -- like Kala Krishna das fell down by associating with bhattaharis of South,
Ajamila fell down by association of a sudra woman etc., You can also compare the
association of a devotee like putting a iron rod in fire, touching a electric wire and getting

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare 7
 Radheshyam das, ISKCON, PUNE, iyfpune@vsnl.com, Trainee Preachers Forum (TPF)
charged up etc., In this way we can have association of similar ideas, opposite ideas and
comparitive ideas.

We can use acronyms like SRC GD (Sri Radha Consciousness Gaura Dances) to remember
the five words, Servant, Respect, Care and concern, Glad, Depend which in turn can help us
recollect the five questions relating to the mood of a devotee :

 Am I serving in the mood of a servant or I want others to serve me ?

 Do I respect others or do I strive for respect?
 Do I care for others or do I worry mostly about my own needs?
 Do I feel glad upon seeing others advancement or do I feel envious?
 Do I depend on guru for guidance or do I make whimsical decisions in life?

In training memory we are concerned not with recalling everything to mind, but with being
able to recall what we want and when we want it. It is a question of organising our memory.
From the vast jumbled mass of impressions, thoughts, feelings and ideas, we must classify
and sort out particular material that we need at any given moment.
For some people, seeing in pictures is very impressionable. They have a visual memory.
Others remember easier what they have heard. This is an auditory memory.

While reading a book or hearing a lecture, one may note down the concepts and below write
the examples or incidents under the categories of (+) for a positive example, (-) for a
opposite example, (SP) for a Prabhupada’s pastime, (S) for any story, (SC) for a scientific
example etc. This categorisation will help in quickly scanning through the notes at a later
time.

We can also use (K) for Krishna, © for Caitanya Mahaprabhu, (d) for devotees, (ds) for
devotional service, (RK) for Radha and Krishna, (SG) for sense gratification and similar
abbreviations to save time and space while making notes.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare 8
 Radheshyam das, ISKCON, PUNE, iyfpune@vsnl.com, Trainee Preachers Forum (TPF)

Mind Mapping technique

A mind map is a tool that mirrors the way in which the brain stores and retrieves
information. It is a powerful way of expressing the thought patterns, pictures and
associations that already exist in the brain. A mind map :
 Helps to understand and absorb information more easily
 Helps to recall information quickly
 To make more effective decisions
 Enhances creativity

You would gain more from looking at a graph or a bar chart than from ploughing through a
1000-word report. A cartoon often can capture and communicate a point much more clearly
and instantaneously than a long-winded explanation.

Mind maps :
 Are Ordered and rational
 Allow analysis – the creator or reader can see how an idea can be broken down logically
 Use key words to express facts or concepts
 Allow the creator to think in terms of linked ideas
 Allow individual facts or ideas to be grouped
 Have a structure
 Allow the reader to see the whole picture
 Use symbols and metaphors
 Use color and pictures and are fun to make and attractive to look at

Mind maps are used for Decision making, Time Management, Making lists, taking notes
during meetings presentations lectures etc, taking notes from a written material or a book,
planning presentations etc.

Why no Meat?
Economic
Health
Anatomic
Religious
Vegetarianism
Krishnatarianism

Four
Regulative
Principles

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare 9