Learning is an art and to learn anything one has to become thorough with the study material required for it. Studying or reading books, grasping the information provided in those books, help us to gain knowledge. Acquiring knowledge is the first step we have taken towards reaching our destination or goal. We often study what interests us or amuses us. We have acquired this wrong habit of judging books by looking at their covers. For example, as soon as one looks at a spiritual book, will never think of reading it as they have this belief that the contents present in it are too complicated and that is why they will find difficult to absorb it. Whereas others may find these kind of books boring as they feel the teaching present in them can no longer be used in practical lives.
Studying always helps in building new sort of associations. Same goes with spiritual study. Spiritual books has stories in it of great souls. Studying of spiritual books will help us inspire our lives and lead towards the right path. When we will study the stories of great souls we will start feeling a new association with these souls. We will feel like we are in contact with them and enjoy being in their company. Story of their lives will inspire us. Greatness will reflect from their lives in our lives. Books are our best friends. If we choose right study material, we will be helping us and benefiting us in many ways. If we choose wrong study material, we will be deceiving us as we ourselves are our friends as well as enemies. It is up to us to choose what to study and when to study.
When one has made up his mind to go for spiritual study, he should do it with great concentration and there should be no looking back. It only benefits us if we keep up with it and do it persistently. We cannot have a laid back attitude and behave the way we want to. We ought to have some sort of discipline when it comes to reading sacred books. We cannot do it fancifully. Complete devotion and firm determination along with concentration is essential. We cannot read a few lines today and give up reading tomorrow as we do not feel like reading and then continue reading after a few days. This kind of study will be of no use. If we have to do it then we should do it with complete dedication.
Most of us may not find spiritual study interesting and thus they give up soon. We become lazy as it is not amusing to us. We all know that content present in such books are of great importance, now it is left to us whether we want to benefit from such books and rise above everything which in turn will help in our advancement or keep listening to promptings made by our lower self. If we listen to our higher self then we will gather courage and master our mind and body, otherwise let them conquer us. For this, complete efforts are essential which have to be made from our whole heart. We find sacred books uninteresting as we are in a state of body consciousness. However, if we read them regularly, interest will start developing gradually. Study will make an impact on our mind and we will learn the discipline of self-control. Our concentration will increase and we will start developing keen interest towards study as we will show a shift form our body consciousness to soul consciousness. Mind has to be turned in the right direction if we want to achieve success.
Studying spiritual books is of great importance but the study has to be regular. It has to be done daily. Only then, one will benefit from it. It has great value in it. We need to keep a faith in ourselves as well as the study material because in the beginning we may find the content very difficult to grasp but with time, regular study will enhance our grasping power and more and more content we will start absorbing. We will start understanding the teaching which we once thought was way out of our reach. Grasping complete meaning initially is very difficult but as we become thorough with the whole study material, we will begin to understand what is being told to us. Study will help us to revive our spiritual nature. We throughout the day perform numerous duties which will help us keep our body healthy. We perform so many tasks which help us in advancement in our chosen field but when it comes to progress in the field of spirituality, we rarely do anything. We act as if our hands are tied and we cannot do anything. We along with other duties should also perform the duties which will help in sustenance of our spirituality.
Till now we have only performed duties which we find interesting and are of lighter interests to us. This is the reason that mind does not enjoy it. Mind will always prefer to read a novel rather than study spiritual books. One has to understand that these kind of spiritual books will help in the attainment of salvation. This will free a man and make him detached rather than making him attached to all the worldly matters. Any book beside spiritual books will offer a study material that will only cover outwardly matters. No book will provide study of self. Only sacred books will provide enough content and information that will help a person to know about himself. Once he will know about himself, he will conquest over everything around him. He is already a king but lack of knowledge puts a firm belief in him that he is a slave and thus he acts accordingly. Study of spiritual books will make him increase the reflecting power of his mind. If we want to make our lives valuable, we need to study these gems made available to us in the form of spiritual books as they will help us in real advancement.