Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 10.20.38
Ūti· What drives us to actIgnorance and Uncontrolled Senses Do Not Help
“Just as a miserly, poverty-stricken person overly absorbed in family life suffers because he cannot control his senses, the fish swimming in the shallow water had to suffer the heat of the autumn sun.”
What the purport teaches
- Fish in shallow water suffer the autumn sun’s heat, even though they do not understand their situation.
- Similarly, a person attached to family life may consider ignorance of spiritual life blissful, yet remain disturbed by family problems.
- Uncontrolled senses deepen this suffering. Ignorance does not protect a person from its painful consequences.
Try this today
Refrain from acting on one unnecessary sense demand today, and notice the trouble it might otherwise cause.
Ask yourself
Is there a sense demand that you expect to bring happiness but that repeatedly brings distress?
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.