Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 11.22.51
Ūti· What drives us to actMistaken Identity Brings Material Misery
“An unintelligent man, failing to distinguish himself from material nature, thinks nature to be real. By contact with it he becomes completely bewildered and enters into the cycle of material existence.”
What the purport teaches
- Failing to distinguish oneself from material nature leads to bewilderment and the cycle of material existence.
- The living entity is transcendental to the three modes of material nature. Yet the external energy makes him think of himself as a material product.
- Through this mistaken identification, the living entity undergoes the reactions of material miseries.
Try this today
Pause once today when a bodily label defines your thinking, and remember that the living entity is transcendental to the three modes of nature.
Ask yourself
When do I think of myself only as a product of material nature?
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.