Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 4.6.43
Āśraya· The supreme shelterThe Supreme Lord’s Energies Are Auspicious
“My dear lord, you create this cosmic manifestation, maintain it, and annihilate it by expansion of your personality, exactly as a spider creates, maintains and winds up its web.”
What the purport teaches
- Brahmā compared the creation, maintenance and annihilation of the cosmos to a spider producing and withdrawing its web.
- Śiva means auspicious, and śakti means energy. Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Maheśvara are incarnations of material qualities, and all are auspicious as expansions of the supreme auspicious.
- Even the mode of ignorance is auspicious in the higher sense. The purport compares this to a government’s criminal department, which has an important purpose alongside its educational department.
Try this today
Reread the government-department example and note how it explains the auspicious purpose of different energies.
Ask yourself
How does the government-department example challenge judgments based only on outward appearance?
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.