Benefits of listening and reading stories

The story of Bhagwat means the story of God but the story of God is incomplete without the story of the devotees.
Therefore, in every scripture, along with the story of God in the Puranas, there is also the story of the devotees. In Navadha Bhakti, the first devotion is Shravan.

Whatever we hear with our ears enters our heart and then we speak. If we listen to a story, only the story will come out of our mouth.

Those who have not heard the story of Hari, the ear is like a building.

Santjan tells four benefits of listening to the story-
1. – Desireless attitude
2.- Purification of conscience
3. – Exclusive devotion
4.- Love for devotees

1. Desire-free attitude – If the story is told and heard honestly, then there is no desire left for both the teller and the listener.

Therefore, he sat down to listen to the story with the determination that the story is not entertainment, it is brainstorming. The story is a mirror,

In which we have come to see ourselves, the ordinary mirror shows only the outer appearance and the story shows the inner feelings of what we really are.

And the narrator i.e. the speaker should not consider the story as a business or a means of livelihood. The listener is doing only one thing.

One is only listening but the speaker is doing two things simultaneously, one is narrating and at the same time he is also listening. When you maintain such honesty then your attitude becomes free from cravings.

2. Purification of conscience – Satsang Katha is like a broom, like an open field, sweep it two or three times and everything gets cleaned, hence keep sweeping your conscience with Satsang.
For example, if we go out somewhere for a few days and when we return, we see that when we went, we had closed all the windows and doors, yet how did dust come in?

Similarly, even if someone is a saint, if he closes the doors of satsang, dirt and dust gets accumulated inside them too.

Therefore, just as you sweep the house again and again to keep it clean, similarly keep sweeping the floor in the form of stories and satsang to keep your heart pure.

3. Exclusive devotion – When we keep hearing about someone whom we have never seen, then by hearing about him again and again, love for him automatically awakens within us.

Similarly, when we listen to the story again and again, our devotion towards the feet of Thakur ji automatically gets awakened. Just as a greedy person starts loving a woman, similarly we start loving the black and white people.

4. Love for devotees – Devotees always pray to God that O Lord, let us not even in our dreams be in the company of such sensual men who are engaged only in women, money, sons etc., please crucify us for any crime, Halahala. Give me poison, crush me under the elephant, feed the lion,
Even if this happens, we will not feel sad, but we should not have any relation with the one who is alienated from the saint, alienated from Hari, alienated from the Guru, who does not love God and the devotees..!!

Jai Shri Radhe