Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 4.8.28
Ūti· What drives us to actThe Soul Is Beyond Honor and Dishonor
“My dear Dhruva, if you feel that your sense of honor has been insulted, you still have no cause for dissatisfaction. This kind of dissatisfaction is another feature of the illusory energy; every living entity is controlled by his previous actions, and therefore there are different varieties of life for enjoying or suffering.”
What the purport teaches
- Nārada explained that dissatisfaction over injured honor is a feature of illusion. Different conditions of enjoyment and suffering arise from previous actions.
- The living spirit soul is uncontaminated by material association, although previous fruitive actions bring different material bodies. Understanding that the soul has no affinity for material suffering or enjoyment marks liberation.
- On the transcendental platform, one neither laments nor hankers. Nārada urged Dhruva to apply this understanding rather than be moved by honor or dishonor.
Try this today
If praise or insult unsettles you today, pause and reflect that neither defines you as a spirit soul.
Ask yourself
How might remembering that I am a spirit soul change my response to an insult?
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.