Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 12.7.18
Ūti· What drives us to actCreation Responds to Conditioned Souls’ Desires
“Out of ignorance the living being performs material activities and thereby becomes in one sense the cause of the creation, maintenance and destruction of the universe. Some authorities call the living being the personality underlying the material creation, while others say he is the unmanifest self.”
What the purport teaches
- The Supreme Lord creates, maintains and annihilates the cosmos in response to conditioned souls’ desires. In this sense, the living being is called the cause of cosmic activity.
- The Lord creates this world to facilitate the conditioned soul’s attempt to exploit nature and, ultimately, his self-realization.
- Conditioned souls cannot perceive their own constitutional identity and are therefore described as unmanifest. The living entity cannot perceive his real form unless he is completely Kṛṣṇa conscious.
Try this today
Identify one desire today and reflect on whether it supports exploitation or growing Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Ask yourself
Do my present desires aim more toward exploiting nature or toward self-realization?
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.