Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 5.12.14
Ūti· What drives us to actProtect Devotion Through Spiritual Guidance
“In a previous birth I was known as Mahārāja Bharata. I attained perfection by becoming completely detached from material activities through direct experience, and through indirect experience I received understanding from the Vedas. I was fully engaged in the service of the Lord, but due to my misfortune, I became very affectionate to a small deer, so much so that I neglected my spiritual duties. Due to my deep affection for the deer, in my next life I had to accept the body of a deer.”
What the purport teaches
- Mahārāja Bharata had become detached from material activities and was fully engaged in the Lord’s service. Yet excessive affection for a deer led him to neglect his spiritual duties and accept a deer’s body.
- Despite his rigid devotional life, Bharata Mahārāja did not consult a spiritual master about this attachment. Forgetting his spiritual routine, he fell down.
- Following the spiritual master’s orders protects the disciple from falling down. Considering the spiritual master ordinary or ambitiously trying to occupy his post blocks spiritual advancement.
Try this today
Notice one attachment that interrupts your spiritual routine, and set it aside while completing one devotional duty today.
Ask yourself
Is an attachment drawing me away from my spiritual duties and the guidance I have received?
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.