Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 2.10.41
Ūti· What drives us to actGood Association Can Transform Our Habits
“According to the different modes of material nature — the mode of goodness, the mode of passion and the mode of darkness — there are different living creatures, who are known as demigods, human beings and hellish living entities. O King, even a particular mode of nature, being mixed with the other two, is divided into three, and thus each kind of living creature is influenced by the other modes and acquires its habits also.”
What the purport teaches
- Conditioned souls are generally influenced by passion, trying to lord it over material nature to fulfill their desires. Through association, they can also develop goodness or ignorance.
- Our habits are not fixed: good or bad association can change them. We need to become intelligent enough to distinguish between the two.
- The best association is service to the Lord’s devotees. Through pure devotees’ association, Śrīla Nārada Muni developed a taste for chanting and hearing the Lord’s glories, which are nondifferent from the Lord.
Try this today
Take one small opportunity today to help a devotee of the Lord.
Ask yourself
Which association is helping me develop a taste for hearing the Lord’s glories?
Carry the question through the day, then answer it in your own words before sleep.
The study points, practice and question are short summaries drawn from Śrīla Prabhupāda's translation and purport. Read the full purport to go deeper.