Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 11.9.17-18
Āśraya· The supreme shelterLiberation Means Blissful Service to the Lord
“When the Supreme Personality of Godhead displays His own potency in the form of time and guides His material potencies, such as the mode of goodness, into a neutral condition of equilibrium, He remains as the supreme controller of that neutral state, called pradhāna, as well as of the living entities. He is also the supreme worshipable object for all beings, including liberated souls, demigods and ordinary conditioned souls. The Lord is eternally free from any material designation, and He constitutes the totality of spiritual bliss, which one experiences by seeing the Lord’s spiritual form. The Lord thus exhibits the fullest meaning of the word “liberation.””
What the purport teaches
- The Lord controls material nature and all living entities while remaining completely apart from material contamination. Fixing the mind on His transcendental form brings relief from material anxiety.
- The gross and subtle bodies are coverings of the eternal soul. Our real nature is neither to enjoy matter nor to merge into the Lord's existence, but to be His servants.
- Service to the Lord is eternal and full of bliss and knowledge. It liberates the soul and gradually brings the bliss of seeing His transcendental personal form.
Try this today
Perform one small act of service to the Lord while consciously remembering, “I am His servant.”
Ask yourself
How would remembering that I am the Lord's servant change one choice today?
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.