Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 11.21.3
Manvantara· The Manus and right dutyDiscern Wisely Beyond Material Good and Bad
“O sinless Uddhava, in order to understand what is proper in life one must evaluate a given object within its particular category. Thus, in analyzing religious principles one must consider purity and impurity. Similarly, in one’s ordinary dealings one must distinguish between good and bad, and to insure one’s physical survival one must recognize that which is auspicious and inauspicious.”
What the purport teaches
- Religious activities, ordinary dealings and physical survival require distinctions between proper and improper. Objects must be evaluated within their particular categories.
- Even careful judgments cannot preserve the body or one’s social surroundings forever. Mere religiosity, worldly expertise and physical fitness cannot award life’s actual perfection.
- Beyond relative material goodness is the transcendental good of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There, life is eternal and full of bliss and knowledge.
Try this today
When making one choice about your health or daily dealings today, consider its practical value while remembering that material well-being is not life’s ultimate goal.
Ask yourself
Do I treat material well-being as life’s perfection, or remember the higher goal of Kṛṣṇa consciousness?
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.