Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 12.1.41
Ūti· What drives us to actImitating Degraded Leaders Spreads Suffering
“The citizens governed by these low-class kings will imitate the character, behavior and speech of their rulers. Harassed by their leaders and by each other, they will all suffer ruination.”
What the purport teaches
- The citizens will imitate their rulers' character, behavior and speech. Harassed by their leaders and by one another, they will suffer ruination.
- The purport places Ripuñjaya, or Purañjaya, about one thousand years after Lord Kṛṣṇa. It places Viśvasphūrji approximately in the twelfth century of the Christian era.
- The purport explains that this chapter's elaborate historical chronology refutes the accusation that Indian religious literature has no sense of chronological history.
Try this today
Notice one harmful pattern of speech you have copied from someone influential, and refrain from repeating it today.
Ask yourself
Whose speech and behavior am I imitating, and what effect does that have on others?
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.