Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 11.9.16
Āśraya· The supreme shelterThe Lord Is the Shelter of Everything
“The Lord of the universe, Nārāyaṇa, is the worshipable God of all living entities. Without extraneous assistance, the Lord creates this universe by His own potency, and at the time of annihilation the Lord destroys the universe through His personal expansion of time and withdraws all of the cosmos, including all the conditioned living entities, within Himself. Thus, His unlimited Self is the shelter and reservoir of all potencies. The subtle pradhāna, the basis of all cosmic manifestation, is conserved within the Lord and is in this way not different from Him. In the aftermath of annihilation the Lord stands alone.”
What the purport teaches
- Nārāyaṇa creates the universe through His own potency without outside help. At annihilation, He withdraws the cosmos and the conditioned living entities within Himself.
- There is only one Supreme Personality of Godhead. All universal affairs and spiritual pastimes are conducted by His potency alone.
- Mahā-Viṣṇu is a plenary portion of Kṛṣṇa, the original Supreme Personality of Godhead. The material and spiritual worlds arise through potencies emanating from the Lord's body, making Him the shelter and supreme controller of everything.
Try this today
Pause today to offer a brief expression of worship to the Lord as the shelter of all existence.
Ask yourself
How does knowing that everything rests in the Lord affect my sense of dependence on Him?
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.