Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 11.13.7
Mukti· LiberationUse Body and Mind for Enlightenment
“In a bamboo forest the wind sometimes rubs the bamboo stalks together, and such friction generates a blazing fire that consumes the very source of its birth, the bamboo forest. Thus, the fire is automatically calmed by its own action. Similarly, by the competition and interaction of the material modes of nature, the subtle and gross material bodies are generated. If one uses his mind and body to cultivate knowledge, then such enlightenment destroys the influence of the modes of nature that generated one’s body. Thus, like the fire, the body and mind are pacified by their own actions in destroying the source of their birth.”
What the purport teaches
- Friction between bamboo stalks can produce a fire that consumes the forest and then becomes calm. Similarly, knowledge cultivated through body and mind destroys the influence of the modes that generated them.
- The body arises from the unstable relationships of goodness, passion and ignorance. Their proportions constantly change, and their conflict carries one through repeated bodies according to one’s karma.
- Changing material circumstances gives the conditioned soul hope of happiness. Yet even relative material happiness is soon disturbed by the changing modes.
Try this today
Use a few minutes of your time and attention to study this teaching instead of planning one more change for material enjoyment.
Ask yourself
Am I seeking lasting peace through knowledge or merely through another change of circumstances?
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.