Sound Bhakti

Our teacher who led with the Bhagavad-gītā when he came to the west called it the Vedic intelligence. One of the practices of Krishna Consciousness is to, as my god brother told me in New York City just a couple of months ago—his name is Pradyumna; he's always bugging me to continue learning Sanskrit, which I've done in fits and starts. I usually do it to procrastinate when I'm writing a book and I think, "Well, maybe I'll learn Sanskrit instead because it seems easier." And I saw him on the street out in front of one of our centers in New York City called The Bhakti Center, and we greeted one another and just asked how we were. I asked how he was doing; he asked how I was doing. I said, "Fine," and he said, "Fine." Then he asked, "How's the Sanskrit?" I said, "Well, um..." and he already knows my Sanskrit teacher and had already told him that I hadn't talked to him in a couple months. So, he looked at me and goes, "Crack a book," and then he walked away. So that's my mantra in my head: "Crack a book." There'