Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 11.10.35
Mukti· LiberationAsk How Devotional Service Brings Liberation
“Śrī Uddhava said: O my Lord, a living entity situated within the material body is surrounded by the modes of nature and the happiness and distress that are born of activities caused by these modes. How is it possible that he is not bound by this material encirclement? It may also be said that the living entity is ultimately transcendental and has nothing to do with the material world. Then how is he ever bound by material nature?”
What the purport teaches
- The modes of nature cause the body to perform fruitive activities, which produce material happiness and distress. The goal of life is liberation, not sense gratification.
- Uddhava asks how a liberated soul can perform bodily activities without being bound by the modes. He also asks how a transcendental living entity can ever become bound.
- Liberation comes through devotional service performed with knowledge and renunciation, not through mundane speculation. Uddhava approaches Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, to clarify this path.
Try this today
Write down one sincere question you have about devotional service and liberation, following Uddhava’s example of seeking clear understanding.
Ask yourself
What do I need to understand more clearly about serving Kṛṣṇa rather than pursuing sense gratification?
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.