Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 3.7.2
Āśraya· The supreme shelterThe Lord’s Activities Are Always Transcendental
“Śrī Vidura said: O great brāhmaṇa, since the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the complete spiritual whole and is unchangeable, how is He connected with the material modes of nature and their activities? If this is His pastime, how do the activities of the unchangeable take place and exhibit qualities without the modes of nature?”
What the purport teaches
- The Lord creates through His many energies and remains their master. Living entities, unlike Him, can be subjugated by those energies.
- The material world is temporary, but the spiritual world is eternal and free from the modes of material nature, even material goodness.
- The Lord descends by His internal potency and never becomes materially contaminated. His body, activities and Himself are nondifferent, so considering His activities material is mistaken.
Try this today
Read one sentence from this purport again and note how it distinguishes the Lord from a conditioned soul.
Ask yourself
Do I sometimes judge the Lord’s activities as though He were an ordinary living entity?
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.