Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 11.25.8
Ūti· What drives us to actMotives Shape Religious Duties
“When a man desires sense gratification, being attached to family life, and when he consequently becomes established in religious and occupational duties, the combination of the modes of nature is manifest.”
What the purport teaches
- When attachment to family enjoyment leads a person to religious and occupational duties, the combination of the modes becomes manifest.
- Religious duties performed for promotion to heaven are in passion. Those performed to enjoy ordinary family life are in ignorance.
- Duties performed selflessly to fulfill one’s occupation in the varṇāśrama system are in goodness. Mundane religiosity thus operates within the modes of nature.
Try this today
Complete one ordinary duty today without seeking a personal reward.
Ask yourself
When you perform a duty, are you seeking enjoyment or trying to fulfill it selflessly?
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.