Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 2.5.14
Āśraya· The supreme shelterNothing Exists Independently of Vāsudeva
“The five elementary ingredients of creation, the interaction thereof set up by eternal time, and the intuition or nature of the individual living beings are all differentiated parts and parcels of the Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva, and in truth there is no other value in them.”
What the purport teaches
- The material ingredients, their interactions and the living beings all come from Lord Kṛṣṇa’s energies. None is independent of Vāsudeva, the Personality of Godhead.
- The living entity is the Lord’s marginal potency, with freedom to remain in the material or spiritual world. Spiritual existence is the normal condition, free from delusion.
- The world and the Lord’s bodily effulgence are His impersonal features. He eternally exists in His transcendental form, sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ, distinct from material ingredients.
Try this today
Look at one material object and reflect that neither its ingredients nor you exist independently of Vāsudeva.
Ask yourself
How might remembering my dependence on Vāsudeva change the way I see the world?
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.