Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 4.24.39
Āśraya· The supreme shelterServe the Lord With Your Whole Being
“My dear Lord, You are the gigantic universal form which contains all the individual bodies of the living entities. You are the maintainer of the three worlds, and as such You maintain the mind, senses, body, and air of life within them. I therefore offer my respectful obeisances unto You.”
What the purport teaches
- The Lord’s universal body contains all the individual bodies of living entities. Lord Śiva offers obeisances so that everyone’s body may fully engage in devotional service.
- All the senses should be engaged in serving the Lord. The nose can smell flowers offered to His lotus feet, and the hands can clean His temple.
- The Lord maintains every living entity and can enable service with full bodily and mental strength. We should serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead with life, wealth, intelligence and words, depending on His sanction.
Try this today
Offer a brief prayer asking the Lord to engage your body, intelligence and words in His service today.
Ask yourself
Which ability or resource could I use more fully in the Lord’s service?
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.