Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 6.1.10
Ūti· What drives us to actDo Not Repeat the Elephant’s Bath
“Sometimes one who is very alert so as not to commit sinful acts is victimized by sinful life again. I therefore consider this process of repeated sinning and atoning to be useless. It is like the bathing of an elephant, for an elephant cleanses itself by taking a full bath, but then throws dust over its head and body as soon as it returns to the land.”
What the purport teaches
- Even someone alert to avoid sinful acts may fall into them again. Mahārāja Parīkṣit therefore rejects repeated sinning and atoning as useless.
- An elephant bathes and then throws dust over its head and body. This illustrates cleansing that is immediately undone by repeating the same behavior.
- Śukadeva Gosvāmī’s answer about atonement was a test of the King’s intelligence. Parīkṣit Mahārāja passes by rejecting it as a genuine solution and awaiting another answer from his spiritual master.
Try this today
Identify one improvement you recently made and avoid one action today that would undo it.
Ask yourself
Where am I undoing my efforts to improve by returning to the same behavior?
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.