Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 4.11.18
Āśraya· The supreme shelterRecognize the Lord’s Inconceivable Energies
“The Supreme Personality of Godhead, by His inconceivable supreme energy, time, causes the interaction of the three modes of material nature, and thus varieties of energy become manifest. It appears that He is acting, but He is not the actor. He is killing, but He is not the killer. Thus it is understood that only by His inconceivable power is everything happening.”
What the purport teaches
- Through His energy of time, the Lord causes the material modes to interact. Although these forces come from Him, He remains aloof from their actions and reactions.
- The Lord is always merciful, but souls who forget their relationship with Kṛṣṇa try to lord it over material nature. They thereby become involved in material interactions and their resulting happiness and unhappiness.
- Like fire whose heat and light act at a distance, the Lord acts through His energies. His energies are simultaneously one with and different from Him, a relationship beyond our small power of comprehension.
Try this today
Spend a minute reflecting on fire, heat and light as an example of how the Lord’s energies act while He remains apart.
Ask yourself
Can I acknowledge the Lord’s inconceivable power without expecting my limited understanding to explain everything?
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.