Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 3.21.19
Āśraya· The supreme shelterThe Creator Remains a Person
“My dear Lord, You alone create the universes. O Personality of Godhead, desiring to create these universes, You create them, maintain them and again wind them up by Your own energies, which are under the control of Your second energy, called yoga-māyā, just as a spider creates a cobweb by its own energy and again winds it up.”
What the purport teaches
- The Personality of Godhead alone creates, maintains and winds up the universes through His energies. Having various energies does not make Him impersonal.
- A spider produces a cobweb and later withdraws it, yet remains an individual. Similarly, the Lord remains a person when He manifests His energies.
- The Lord is conscious: He hears prayers and can fulfill His devotee’s desires. He is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha, the form of bliss, knowledge and eternity.
Try this today
Offer a short, personal prayer to the Lord, remembering that He can hear you.
Ask yourself
How does knowing that the Lord hears prayers affect the way I approach Him?
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.