Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 11.17.57
Ūti· What drives us to actThe Anxiety of Being the Only Protector
“O my poor elderly parents, and my wife with a mere infant in her arms, and my other young children! Without me they have absolutely no one to protect them and will suffer unbearably. How can my poor relatives possibly live without me?”
What the purport teaches
- The householder worries about his elderly parents, his wife with an infant, and his other young children. He imagines them suffering unbearably without him.
- He believes that his relatives have absolutely no one else to protect them. His anxious question is how they could possibly live without him.
- In this description of family attachment, concern for relatives becomes the fearful conviction that everything depends on oneself.
Try this today
Notice one anxious thought about your family today and ask whether it assumes that you are their only possible protector.
Ask yourself
When I worry about my family, do I assume that their protection depends entirely on me?
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.