Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 3.7.4
Āśraya· The supreme shelterMisused Independence Leads to Material Entanglement
“By His self-sheltered potency of the three modes of material nature, the Lord has caused the creation of this universe. By her He maintains the creation and conversely dissolves it, again and again.”
What the purport teaches
- The Lord repeatedly creates, maintains and dissolves the universe through His potency endowed with the three modes of material nature.
- The material world is not for the Lord’s own purpose. It is for conditioned souls who misuse their God-gifted minute independence and want to become controllers.
- Forgetting his spiritual identity, the conditioned soul considers himself part of the material creation. He becomes entangled in material activities and repeated birth and death.
Try this today
Identify one controlling impulse today and pause to remember that your independence is minute and God-gifted.
Ask yourself
Where does my wish to be the controller make me forget my spiritual identity?
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.