Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 4.7.40
Āśraya· The supreme shelterDevotional Service Reveals the Lord
“The personified Vedas said: We offer our respectful obeisances unto You, the Lord, the shelter of the quality of goodness and therefore the source of all religion, austerity and penance, for You are transcendental to all material qualities and no one knows You or Your actual situation.”
What the purport teaches
- Lord Viṣṇu oversees the quality of goodness, which supports religion, knowledge, austerity and peace. Passion and ignorance make conditioned life intolerable.
- Lord Viṣṇu is always nirguṇa, beyond material qualities. This does not mean He has no qualities; His qualities and pastimes are transcendental.
- The Lord’s transcendental qualities are revealed to devotees through devotional service. Goodness allows partial understanding, but one must transcend all three material qualities to reach pure spiritual life.
Try this today
Offer a short prayer to Lord Viṣṇu, asking to understand Him through devotional service.
Ask yourself
Do I see goodness as a support for devotional service, rather than the final goal?
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.