Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 3.31.13
Īśānukathā· The Lord and His devoteesRepentance Reveals Our Relationship with the Lord
“I, the pure soul, appearing now bound by my activities, am lying in the womb of my mother by the arrangement of māyā. I offer my respectful obeisances unto Him who is also here with me but who is unaffected and changeless. He is unlimited, but He is perceived in the repentant heart. To Him I offer my respectful obeisances.”
What the purport teaches
- The individual soul and the Supersoul dwell in the same body as friends. The individual soul suffers, while the Supersoul remains pure, unaffected and changeless.
- The Lord resides in every heart but is realized by the repentant soul. Such repentance includes recognizing the mistake of trying to lord it over material nature.
- True understanding means knowing that Vāsudeva is the master and the individual soul is His servant. With this understanding, the soul surrenders unto Him.
Try this today
Offer respectful obeisances and a simple prayer of repentance for forgetting your relationship with the Lord.
Ask yourself
Where am I trying to be the master rather than remembering my position as the Lord’s servant?
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.