Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 11.23.48
Ūti· What drives us to actFalse Ego Turns Restlessness into Quarrel
“Failing to conquer this irrepressible enemy, the mind, whose urges are intolerable and who torments the heart, many people are completely bewildered and create useless quarrel with others. Thus they conclude that other people are either their friends, their enemies or parties indifferent to them.”
What the purport teaches
- When people fail to conquer the tormenting mind, they become bewildered and create useless quarrels. They divide others into friends, enemies and indifferent parties.
- Bodily identification makes one regard children and grandchildren as eternal property. It obscures the understanding that every living being is qualitatively one with God.
- All living beings are eternal expansions of the Supreme Lord. The mind absorbed in false ego instead overwhelms the conditioned soul with pride and ignorance.
Try this today
Before responding to someone who irritates you today, remember that this person is also an eternal expansion of the Supreme Lord.
Ask yourself
Am I allowing bodily pride to turn someone into an enemy in my mind?
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.