Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 4.18.21
Ūti· What drives us to actHabits Associated With the Mode of Ignorance
“Then the Yakṣas, Rākṣasas, ghosts and witches, who are habituated to eating flesh, transformed Lord Śiva’s incarnation Rudra [Bhūtanātha] into a calf and milked out beverages made of blood and put them in a pot made of skulls.”
What the purport teaches
- The Yakṣas, Rākṣasas, ghosts and witches were habituated to eating flesh. They made Rudra into a calf and collected beverages made of blood in a pot of skulls.
- The purport describes these eating habits as degraded and places their leaders in the mode of ignorance.
- Rudra, an incarnation of Lord Śiva, governs the mode of ignorance in material nature. Lord Śiva is also called Bhūtanātha, meaning “master of ghosts.”
Try this today
Choose one meal without flesh today, reflecting on the habits described in this verse.
Ask yourself
What does this verse ask me to consider about the influence of eating habits?
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.