Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 10.87.33
Mukti· LiberationAccept Guidance to Steady the Mind
“The mind is like an impetuous horse that even persons who have regulated their senses and breath cannot control. Those in this world who try to tame the uncontrolled mind, but who abandon the feet of their spiritual master, encounter hundreds of obstacles in their cultivation of various distressful practices. O unborn Lord, they are like merchants on a boat in the ocean who have failed to employ a helmsman.”
What the purport teaches
- The rebellious mind is subdued by replacing attachment to sense gratification with a higher taste for spiritual life. This higher taste comes through the favor of the spiritual master.
- Even control of the senses and breath cannot fully cleanse material desires without devotion. Abandoning the spiritual master leaves one like merchants at sea without a competent helmsman.
- A humble, steadfast devotee of Lord Viṣṇu and the Vaiṣṇavas can overcome the stubborn mind. One who takes human life seriously seeks a spiritual master who can guide him in Kṛṣṇa consciousness toward love of Godhead.
Try this today
Read one instruction from the spiritual master in this purport and choose one way to follow it today.
Ask yourself
Where am I relying only on my own strength instead of humbly seeking spiritual guidance?
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.