Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 10.87.25
Āśraya· The supreme shelterDevotional Service Is Both Path and Goal
“Supposed authorities who declare that matter is the origin of existence, that the permanent qualities of the soul can be destroyed, that the self is compounded of separate aspects of spirit and matter, or that material transactions constitute reality — all such authorities base their teachings on mistaken ideas that hide the truth. The dualistic conception that the living entity is produced from the three modes of nature is simply a product of ignorance. Such a conception has no real basis in You, for You are transcendental to all illusion and always enjoy perfect, total awareness.”
What the purport teaches
- False designations cover the soul and create illusion, misleading even sophisticated philosophers and mystics. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is beyond all illusion and always enjoys perfect, total awareness.
- The jīva soul is always a knower and is both conscious and active. Liberation does not destroy the soul’s consciousness or reduce it to the condition of a dead stone.
- Devotion means surrender to the will of the Supreme Person, not merely using Him as a helper for concentration. Devotional service is both the primary means to liberation and identical with liberation itself; worship continues in the liberated state.
Try this today
Offer a short prayer to Kṛṣṇa today, asking to serve Him rather than merely seeking His help for another goal.
Ask yourself
Do I regard devotional service as the goal itself, or merely as a means to gain something else?
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.