Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 10.49.22
Ūti· What drives us to actWealth Cannot Provide Lasting Security
“In the guise of dear dependents, strangers steal the sinfully acquired wealth of a foolish man, just as the offspring of a fish drink up the water that sustains the fish.”
What the purport teaches
- Ordinary people feel they cannot live without wealth. Yet their possession of it is circumstantial and temporary.
- The verse describes dear dependents taking a foolish person’s sinfully acquired wealth. Their apparent closeness does not secure his possessions.
- Wealth sustains an ordinary person as water sustains a fish. The comparison shows dependents consuming that wealth as a fish’s offspring drink up its sustaining water.
Try this today
Review one way you acquire money and check that supporting others is not becoming an excuse for wrongdoing.
Ask yourself
Does my desire to support dependents tempt me to acquire wealth by improper means?
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.