Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 11.28.20
Āśraya· The supreme shelterAll Perception Depends on the Supreme Lord
“The material mind manifests in three phases of consciousness — wakefulness, sleep and deep sleep — which are products of the three modes of nature. The mind further appears in three different roles — the perceiver, the perceived and the regulator of perception. Thus the mind is manifested variously throughout these threefold designations. But it is the fourth factor, existing separately from all this, that alone constitutes the Absolute Truth.”
What the purport teaches
- The material mind appears in wakefulness, sleep and deep sleep, which are products of the three modes of nature.
- It also appears as the perceiver, the perceived and the regulator of perception. The Absolute Truth is the fourth factor, existing separately from these material divisions.
- Everything is illuminated by the Personality of Godhead’s original illumination. Our entire range of perception, cognition and sensitivity is an insignificant expansion of His.
Try this today
Pause once while seeing or thinking today, and reflect that all perception and understanding depend on the Personality of Godhead.
Ask yourself
How might recognizing the source of my perception change the way I regard my own understanding?
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.