Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 11.4.7
Ūti· What drives us to actDo Not Measure God by Material Desires
“King Indra became fearful, thinking that Nara-Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi would become very powerful by His severe penances and seize Indra’s heavenly kingdom. Thus Indra, not knowing the transcendental glories of the incarnation of the Lord, sent Cupid and his associates to the Lord’s residence in Badarikāśrama. As the charming breezes of spring created a most sensuous atmosphere, Cupid himself attacked the Lord with arrows in the form of the irresistible glances of beautiful women.”
What the purport teaches
- Attached to his heavenly kingdom, Indra feared that Nara-Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi wanted to seize it through severe penances. He did not understand the Lord’s transcendental glories.
- Indra sent Cupid and his associates to distract the Lord with sensual attractions. He wrongly placed the Personality of Godhead on his own level, as an ordinary enjoyer.
- Indra’s plot could not affect the Lord and instead revealed Indra’s shortsightedness. The Lord possesses supreme renunciation and does not seek the fleeting attractions of heavenly power.
Try this today
Name one position or possession you fear losing, then reread the translation while remembering that the Lord is not an ordinary enjoyer.
Ask yourself
Do my own attachments lead me to assume that the Lord shares my material ambitions?
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.