Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 10.14.44
Ūti· What drives us to actIllusion Makes Us Forget Our Identity
“What indeed is not forgotten by those whose minds are bewildered by the Lord’s illusory potency? By that power of Māyā, this entire universe remains in perpetual bewilderment, and in this atmosphere of forgetfulness no one can understand his own identity.”
What the purport teaches
- The entire universe is bewildered by the Lord’s illusory potency. Even great demigods such as Indra and Brahmā are not exempt from forgetfulness.
- Kṛṣṇa exercised His internal illusory potency over His cowherd friends and calves. Their inability to remember their position for a year is therefore not astonishing.
- By the Lord’s external illusory potency, conditioned souls forget their own existence for billions of years. They continue transmigrating through the material world, described as a kingdom of ignorance.
Try this today
Read the translation slowly and pause at “his own identity” to reflect on the limits of your present self-understanding.
Ask yourself
How does knowing that even great demigods can forget encourage humility in me?
Carry the question through the day, then answer it in your own words before sleep.
From Canto 10, chapter 14 onward, the translation and purports were completed by Śrīla Prabhupāda's disciples after his departure, and published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.