Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 3.26.5
Ūti· What drives us to actMaterial Modes Cover Our Spiritual Identity
“Divided into varieties by her threefold modes, material nature creates the forms of the living entities, and the living entities, seeing this, are illusioned by the knowledge-covering feature of the illusory energy.”
What the purport teaches
- Material nature creates different bodily forms through goodness, passion and ignorance. Its knowledge-covering power affects conditioned souls, never the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
- Living entities are spiritual, but under the material modes they forget their spiritual identity. Thinking that the material body is the self is called moha, or bewilderment.
- The Lord wants to rectify the conditioned souls’ desire to enjoy and lord it over material energy. He alone is the supreme enjoyer, and although He is the father of all living entities, He remains aloof from the three modes.
Try this today
Notice one body-based description you use for yourself today, and pause to remember that you are a spirit soul, part and parcel of the Supreme Lord.
Ask yourself
When do I think of my material body as the whole of who I am?
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.