What is inquisitiveness.........Inquisitiveness means an eagerness to advance in the process of hearing. When Maharaj Parikshit was inquiring from Sukhdev Goswami, there were also many other great rishis there & they were all inquisitive. The proof that they were inquisitive is that, they were sitting; they were listening, they were eager to hear. Whether you are asking the question or someone else is asking the question, if you are eager to hear, that is inquisitiveness. When Srila Prabhupada was sitting at Kosi with Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur for hours & hours & hours, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur was speaking & so many people were asking questions & he was answering all of them. But Srila Prabhupada did not speak a word in that whole darshan, he just sat & listened with an eagerness to understand, with an eagerness to serve & the next time Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati met Srila Prabhupada in Allahabad, Rupa Goswami Math Allahabad is where Lord Sri Chaitanya instructed Rupa Goswami who also approached with complete submissiveness to serve. So the temple president recommended this is Abhay Charan, he wants to be your disciple. And Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, he saw him & he was very pleased & he said,” Oh! Yes I will initiate him, I marked that he likes to hear.” Prabhupada didn’t ask any questions, but his inquisitiveness was, he was coming to a place where he could hear, he was eager to hear. So whether someone else is asking a question or no one is asking a question, when someone is speaking Hari katha, if you are eager to hear, eager to learn, eager to purify your heart by that sound vibration, that is inquisitiveness.Real inquisitiveness means you come to hearSometimes we can think of a question to ask, but we are hearing, we should not distract our brains to think of the question to ask as you are hearing if you have a question you ask, but the real inquisitiveness means you have come to hear. That answers your question. I’ll be honest with you. For the first many years I was a devotee, I never asked a question in class because I was too shy, but I would just listen, everyday in class, I was just listening, listening, taking notes, trying to learn, trying to understand & some how or other all my shyness went away. Anyway, just by coming regularly with that eagerness that what is Krishna is speaking. This is the fact that you sacrifice your time. You can be doing so many other things. The whole world is out there beckoning you to engage in so many activities. The fact is that you sacrifice everything else to come to Srimad Bhagavatam class, Bhagavad Gita class, to sit down & read Prabhupada’s books attentively with an eagerness to hear, that is inquisitiveness, even if it is not even a class, if you are just sitting & reading Prabhupada’s books with a desire to learn, that is perfect inquisitiveness. That is what Krishna is telling, ‘pari prashnena sevaya’ and then if you are willing to implement those with your life, that is seva.Srila Prabhupada ki Jai!
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