Chapter 3Mental Development and Sadhana · Reading What Is Helpful to the Sadhana

Dhyana and work are both helpful for this Yoga to those who can do both. Reading also can be made helpful.

* Dedication to the Divine [is the right attitude in reading]. To read what will help the Yoga or what will be useful for the work or what will develop the capacities for the divine purpose. Not to read worthless stuff or for mere entertainment or for a dilettante intellectual curiosity which is of the nature of a mental dram-drinking. When one is established in the highest consciousness, one can read nothing or everything: it makes no difference — but that is still far off.

* In the beginning of the sadhana you need nothing more than just what you say, “concentration with faith, devotion and sincerity” on a form of the Divine Being — you can add prayer or the name, if you like.

Reading good books can be of help in the early mental stage — they prepare the mind, put it in the right atmosphere — can even if one is very sensitive bring some glimpses of realisation on the mental plane. Afterwards the utility diminishes — you have to find the right knowledge and experience in yourself.

* This [inclination to meditate while reading books on spiritual life] is quite a normal movement. In reading these books you get into touch with the Force behind them and it is this that pushes you into meditation and a corresponding experience.

* It depends upon the nature of the things read, whether they are helpful to the growth of the being or not. No general rule can be made. It cannot be said that poetry or dramas ought or ought not to be read — it depends on the poem or the play — so with the rest.

* It is quite permissible to do so [read light literature at times for a change] and may relieve. The one thing necessary is that you should be able to keep the consciousness behind free, as in this case.

* What you can do is to read not for pastime but with the clear intention of furnishing your mind with knowledge.

* Yes, reading can be done for the improvement of the mental instrument as part of the sadhana.