Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 5.14.20
Ūti· What drives us to actMake Time for Spiritual Cultivation
“Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued speaking to Mahārāja Parīkṣit: My dear King, sleep is exactly like a python. Those who wander in the forest of material life are always devoured by the python of sleep. Being bitten by this python, they always remain in the darkness of ignorance. They are like dead bodies thrown in a distant forest. Thus the conditioned souls cannot understand what is going on in life.”
What the purport teaches
- Sleep is compared to a python that swallows the conditioned soul. While asleep, one forgets life’s purpose and what one should do.
- Material life centers on eating, sleeping, mating and defending. Spiritual realization requires reducing absorption in these activities.
- The Gosvāmīs of Vṛndāvana engaged constantly in spiritual cultivation and slept very little. The purport also acknowledges that the body requires some sleep.
Try this today
Set aside five minutes today for spiritual study without cutting into needed sleep.
Ask yourself
Am I giving spiritual cultivation a place in my day, or letting bodily activities occupy everything?
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.