A young man was wrongly implicated in a murder case and was sentenced to life-imprisonment. Though he protested and pleaded, but to no avail ; he was locked up in the prison. This unfortunate turn of events caused him to almost lose his sanity. But, this man was not a loser. He turned to the prison library for relief and chose the most racy books They were alright for sometime but slowly he lost interest in them. Next, he chose books on history. Again, after a while, the subject did not interest him. Books on literature were his next choice but they could not satisfy him either. This way he kept on changing the types of books he read till there was nothing left except the books on religion, which he had avoided till then, assuming them to be highly boring and useless.

Now that nothing else interested him, he decided to give the books on religion a try. Once he began, he read all the books on religion that were available in the prison library. Then he reread them. As a result of such reading, he lost his bitterness and became very peaceful. Then one day he was informed that he was free ; his prison term had ended much earlier due to his good behaviour. The prison authorities were surprised that the young man did not show much emotion on being given the good news. On being questioned, he explained that he was already free and being in the prison or outside did not matter much to him any more.

Yes, books have such power, especially the scriptures. Due to lack of knowledge, most people avoid such books, as did the imprisoned young man in the beginning. But these books have all the answers to life's problems. This man understood that his imprisonment was not at all a mistake. Lord Krishna states in Bhagavad-Geeta : “This material nature, which is one of My energies, is working under My direction" (9.10). There is no chance of a fault being committed in God's system of justice. The young man understood that the punishment must have been due to some earlier sin. Thus, he was completely pacified.

It is true that scriptures or religious books or such topics are not interesting to a casual reader but so is the advanced information on any other subject. Can an uninitiated person find the research papers on, say brain surgery interesting ? One needs to get familiar with a subject before it becomes interesting for him. The same applies to the spiritual topics, especially, because they constitute the highest knowledge. Once a person is convinced about this, he should ascertain the ways and means to proceed in this direction. The authorities in this field would show the way. One needs to start from the basics. The Puranas, the Ramayana and Mahabharata are an ideal starting point. Next comes the Bhagavad-Geeta. This way one can make progress. What helps in this pursuit is to read with others; hear spiritual discourses from authorities ; ask questions of knowledgeable persons and discuss such topics with like-minded people.

Since spiritual science is the highest science, it requires a far greater effort than any other subject. However, the rewards are amazing for anyone who perseveres, as the young man did. One can get the answers to the most complicated problems of life from this.

It is not true that only spiritual topics are worth reading, there are other literature which are beneficial materially or for passing time. Only in a very advanced stage of spiritual progress, one can do without such mundane literature. In any case, books are a wonderful companion and are highly dependable. A person who develops good reading habits is not likely to be bored or have difficulty in passing time. On the positive side, he shall become very wise. It only requires an initial effort. Everyone is an individual with specific needs and one's own motivation. One needs to identify them and this is called self-realisation. Once that is accurately done, one can proceed with fulfilling them with the proper selection of reading material.

Such reading material, if chosen wisely, shall help a person to advance spiritually, intellectually and materially in life. Books are valuable. An intelligent person takes full advantage of the valuable information available in print.