Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 10.2.27
Ūti· What drives us to actTwo Distinct Souls Within the Body
“The body [the total body and the individual body are of the same composition] may figuratively be called “the original tree.” From this tree, which fully depends on the ground of material nature, come two kinds of fruit — the enjoyment of happiness and the suffering of distress. The cause of the tree, forming its three roots, is association with the three modes of material nature — goodness, passion and ignorance. The fruits of bodily happiness have four tastes — religiosity, economic development, sense gratification and liberation — which are experienced through five senses for acquiring knowledge in the midst of six circumstances: lamentation, illusion, old age, death, hunger and thirst. The seven layers of bark covering the tree are skin, blood, muscle, fat, bone, marrow and semen, and the eight branches of the tree are the five gross and three subtle elements — earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego. The tree of the body has nine hollows — the eyes, the ears, the nostrils, the mouth, the rectum and the genitals — and ten leaves, the ten airs passing through the body. In this tree of the body there are two birds: one is the individual soul, and the other is the Supersoul.”
What the purport teaches
- The material elements are the inferior energy of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, while living entities are His superior energy. The entire cosmic manifestation is a combination of these two energies.
- The body is compared to a tree bearing the fruits of happiness and distress. The living entity is completely separate from this material bodily structure.
- The individual soul and the Supersoul are like two birds in the tree of the body, each keeping its own identity. The individual soul occupies his own body, while the Supersoul is present in every body.
Try this today
Reread the description of the two birds today, then recall: the individual soul and the Supersoul remain distinct from each other and from matter.
Ask yourself
How does knowing that I am distinct from my body change my view of bodily happiness and distress?
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.