Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 4.7.27
Ūti· What drives us to actThe Vedas Lead to Understanding Kṛṣṇa
“The priests addressed the Lord, saying: O Lord, transcendental to material contamination, by the curse offered by Lord Śiva’s men we have become attached to fruitive activities, and thus we are now fallen and therefore do not know anything about You. On the contrary, we are now involved in the injunctions of the three departments of the Vedic knowledge under the plea of executing rituals in the name of yajña. We know that You have made arrangements for distributing the respective shares of the demigods.”
What the purport teaches
- The priests admitted that attachment to fruitive activities had left them unable to understand the Lord. They were absorbed in ritual arrangements.
- Those attached to the ritualistic ceremonies and flowery words of the Vedas can miss their ultimate goal: understanding Lord Kṛṣṇa, or Viṣṇu.
- Those who transcend attractions connected with the material qualities can understand Kṛṣṇa. The Lord Himself is never contaminated by those qualities.
Try this today
Before one religious practice today, pause and make understanding Kṛṣṇa your aim rather than gaining a material result.
Ask yourself
Am I seeking material results from religious practice, or seeking to understand Kṛṣṇa?
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.