Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 11.28.41
Ūti· What drives us to actDevotional Service Beyond Bodily Perfection
“By various methods, some yogīs free the body from disease and old age and keep it perpetually youthful. Thus they engage in yoga for the purpose of achieving material mystic perfections.”
What the purport teaches
- Some yogīs use various methods to preserve bodily youth and overcome disease and old age. Their aim is material mystic perfection.
- A process meant to fulfill material desires rather than bring transcendental knowledge cannot be accepted as devotional service to the Lord.
- Despite mystic perfections, the material body will ultimately die. Actual eternal youth and happiness are available only on the spiritual platform of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Try this today
Before your spiritual practice today, pause and make devotional service to the Lord your aim rather than bodily perfection.
Ask yourself
Is my spiritual practice directed toward serving the Lord or mainly toward improving my material condition?
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.