Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 10.63.40
Ūti· What drives us to actAttachment Keeps Us in Material Misery
“Their intelligence bewildered by Your māyā, fully attached to children, wife, home and so on, persons immersed in the ocean of material misery sometimes rise to the surface and sometimes sink down.”
What the purport teaches
- Intelligence bewildered by the Lord’s māyā becomes fully attached to children, wife, home and similar concerns. Such persons rise and sink in the ocean of material misery.
- Rising means attaining higher species, such as demigods; sinking means entering lower species, even immobile forms such as trees. Neither movement takes one beyond that ocean.
- Śiva now instructs Bāṇa about his actual position in relation to the Lord. His intention is to secure the Lord’s grace for Bāṇāsura.
Try this today
Name one attachment that absorbs your thoughts, and spend a minute reflecting on how it can bewilder your intelligence.
Ask yourself
Which attachment most easily makes me forget my actual position in relation to the Lord?
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.