Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 12.4.24
Āśraya· The supreme shelterDependent on Yet Distinct From Supreme Reality
“A lamp, the eye that views by the light of that lamp, and the visible form that is viewed are all basically nondifferent from the element fire. In the same way, intelligence, the senses and sense perceptions have no existence separate from the supreme reality, although that Absolute Truth remains totally distinct from them.”
What the purport teaches
- A lamp, the eye seeing by its light, and the visible form are all basically nondifferent from fire.
- Similarly, intelligence, the senses and sense perceptions have no existence separate from the supreme reality.
- Yet the Absolute Truth remains totally distinct from them. Their dependence does not erase this distinction.
Try this today
Read the lamp example again, then state in your own words how perception depends on the supreme reality.
Ask yourself
How does the lamp example help me understand dependence without losing distinction?
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.