Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 10.28.16
Īśānukathā· The Lord and His devoteesBeyond Impersonal Awareness to Kṛṣṇa’s Abode
“The cowherd men were brought by Lord Kṛṣṇa to the Brahma-hrada, made to submerge in the water, and then lifted up. From the same vantage point that Akrūra saw the spiritual world, the cowherd men saw the planet of the Absolute Truth.”
What the purport teaches
- Kṛṣṇa submerged the cowherd men in Brahma-hrada, understood in the purport as immersing them in awareness of the impersonal Brahman.
- He then lifted them to a higher understanding: the Personality of Godhead in His own spiritual planet. They saw the transcendental abode of the Absolute Truth.
- Spiritual understanding moves beyond attraction to material variety and beyond the undifferentiated One. In Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we discover that spiritual oneness contains its own eternal variety.
Try this today
Briefly review the three stages described in the purport: material attraction, impersonal awareness and Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Ask yourself
How does eternal spiritual variety expand your understanding of spiritual life?
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.