Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 4.24.64
Āśraya· The supreme shelterThe Lord Witnesses Every Heart
“My dear Lord, after creating by Your own potencies, You enter within the creation in four kinds of forms. Being within the hearts of the living entities, You know them and know how they are enjoying their senses. The so-called happiness of this material creation is exactly like the bees’ enjoyment of honey after it has been collected in the honeycomb.”
What the purport teaches
- Dull matter cannot work independently. The Lord enters the creation as Paramātmā, and the living entities enter as His separated parts and parcels.
- Every living entity is an individual soul, whether appearing as a human being, animal, tree, germ or microbe. The Supreme Personality of Godhead resides in every heart, knowing desires and permitting activities.
- Material enjoyment mixes pleasure with suffering, like bees enjoying honey while suffering other bees’ bites. The Lord remains aloof and worshipable; spiritual enjoyment is pure enjoyment under His protection.
Try this today
Take a quiet moment today to acknowledge the Lord within your heart and offer Him a prayer of worship.
Ask yourself
Where do I notice that the material enjoyment I seek also brings suffering?
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.