Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 11.20.3
Manvantara· The Manus and right dutyScripture Guides Human Beings Toward Perfection
“Without seeing the difference between piety and sin, how can one understand Your own instructions in the form of Vedic literatures, which order one to act piously and forbid one to act sinfully? Furthermore, without such authorized Vedic literatures, which ultimately award liberation, how can human beings achieve the perfection of life?”
What the purport teaches
- The Lord’s Vedic instructions direct people to act piously and avoid sinful activities. Uddhava asks how these instructions can be understood without recognizing that distinction.
- Without accepting the need to perform pious activities and avoid sin, authorized religious scriptures become difficult to understand.
- Uddhava also asks how human beings can attain salvation without authorized scripture. His question emphasizes scripture’s role in reaching the perfection of life.
Try this today
Reread the translation and write its two questions in your own words.
Ask yourself
Do I approach scriptural guidance as help toward life’s perfection?
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.