Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 10.1.41
Ūti· What drives us to actTrain the Mind in Kṛṣṇa’s Service
“Having experienced a situation by seeing or hearing about it, one contemplates and speculates about that situation, and thus one surrenders to it, not considering his present body. Similarly, by mental adjustments one dreams at night of living under different circumstances, in different bodies, and forgets his actual position. Under this same process, one gives up his present body and accepts another [tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ].”
What the purport teaches
- Dreams show how the mind can become absorbed in another body and forget its present situation. When the gross body returns to the material elements, the mind continues to work, and the soul does not die.
- Consciousness must be purified from material absorption to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Fixing the mind at Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet draws the other senses into His service; this is bhakti.
- Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, controls remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. Even if a devotee’s mind works imperfectly at death, Kṛṣṇa can give that devotee shelter at His lotus feet rather than another material body.
Try this today
Pause today to think of Kṛṣṇa and offer Him obeisances, with the intention of becoming absorbed in His service.
Ask yourself
What temporary concerns occupy your mind, and how could you turn some of that attention toward Kṛṣṇa?
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.