Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 2.7.21
Poṣaṇa· The Lord's protectionThe Lord Heals Material Existence
“The Lord in His incarnation of Dhanvantari very quickly cures the diseases of the ever-diseased living entities simply by His fame personified, and only because of Him do the demigods achieve long lives. Thus the Personality of Godhead becomes ever glorified. He also exacted a share from the sacrifices, and it is He only who inaugurated the medical science or the knowledge of medicine in the universe.”
What the purport teaches
- Medical science also comes from the Personality of Godhead, the ultimate source of everything. He inaugurated it as Dhanvantari, and this knowledge is recorded in the Vedas.
- The embodied living entity is subject to disease by the very construction of the body. Diseases differ, but disease, birth, and death accompany material life.
- The Lord’s grace brings relief not only from bodily and mental diseases but also from repeated birth and death. His name is called bhavauṣadhi, the source of curing the disease of material existence.
Try this today
Spend one quiet minute repeating the Lord’s name, remembering its power to relieve the disease of material existence.
Ask yourself
Do I seek only bodily relief, or also freedom from repeated birth and death through the Lord’s grace?
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.