Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 1.2.11
Āśraya· The supreme shelterOne Absolute Truth, Three Features
“Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this nondual substance Brahman, Paramātmā or Bhagavān.”
What the purport teaches
- Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān are three features of the same nondual Absolute Truth. They are different views of one substance, not competing truths.
- Bhagavān, the Personality of Godhead, is the fullest realization of the Absolute Truth. Paramātmā is His partial representation, and Brahman is His glowing effulgence.
- The living entities belong to the superior, spiritual energy, while the material world is inferior energy. Contact with material energy leads the living being to mistakenly think he belongs to it.
Try this today
Write one sentence each describing Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān as explained in this purport.
Ask yourself
How does understanding Bhagavān as the fullest realization deepen my view of the Absolute Truth?
Carry the question through the day, then answer it in your own words before sleep.
The study points, practice and question are short summaries drawn from Śrīla Prabhupāda's translation and purport. Read the full purport to go deeper.