Prabhupada had written to one senior disciple:
Now we shall concentrate on making our devotees Krishna conscious and not be so much concerned with expanding ourselves widely without any spiritual content.
Srila Prabhupada had made an analogy, comparing study of his books to "boiling down milk":
Just like milk -- we may thin it more and more with water for cheating the customer, but in the end it will cease any longer to be milk. Thus the devotees' spiritual life would be thinned out more and more.
Better to boil the milk very vigorously and make it thick and sweet. That is the best process. So let us concentrate on training our devotees very thoroughly in the knowledge of Krishna consciousness from our books, from tapes, by discussing always, and in so many ways instruct them in the right propositions.
Since Bali-mardana and Upendra first introduced Krsna consciousness in Australia two years previously, devotees were daily hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam from Prabhupada's original red brick-coloured three-volume set of the First Canto, published in India. But the daily readings simply consisted of just that -- one man would read and the others would listen. More recently, Srila Prabhupada's Second Canto was being published chapter by chapter, and individually bound paperback editions -- The First Step in God Realization, The Lord in the Heart, and Pure Devotional Service -- The Change in Heart, were being read each morning.
In mid-June 1972, Srila Prabhupada wrote to Madhudvisa outlining new and specific instructions regarding the reading and studying of his books:
I am very much stressing at this point that all my students shall be very much conversant with the philosophy of Krishna consciousness and that they should read our books very diligently, at least one or two hours daily, and try to understand the subject matter from varieties of angles.
This was one of several letters that Prabhupada had sent to members of the GBC introducing something new in ISKCON -- the Srimad-Bhagavatam class. Prabhupada described how the devotees should each day read aloud one Sanskrit sloka from the Srimad-Bhagavatam, repeat the transliteration, chant the sloka several times, and then discuss the subject matter "very minutely and inspect it from all angles of approach and savour the new understandings".
Prabhupada stressed that the devotees' best training was to hear repeatedly from the Bhagavatam in a structured, class format. By such hearing, the devotees would become well-qualified to spread Krsna consciousness. "If they do not have knowledge," Prabhupada added, "how can they go out and preach?"
Regular hearing of Srimad-Bhagavatam would give the devotees the strength to practise the austerities of spiritual life. Such hearing would especially protect them from being allured by the dangerous material energy. Even if the devotees only discussed one verse each day, Prabhupada said, it would take fifty years to finish studying the Srimad-Bhagavatam. Certainly, Prabhupada concluded: "We have got ample stock for acquiring knowledge."
Soon after receiving the letter from Srila Prabhupada, Madhudvisa Swami introduced the new, structured in-depth Srimad-Bhagavatam classes in Australia. As Prabhupada had predicted, the devotees became very enlivened.
- From "The Great Transcendental Adventure" by HG Kurma Prabhu
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