Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 6.16.5
Mukti· LiberationMaterial Relationships Change With Time
“In this material world, which advances like a river that carries away the living entity, all people become friends, relatives and enemies in due course of time. They also act neutrally, they mediate, they despise one another, and they act in many other relationships. Nonetheless, despite these various transactions, no one is permanently related.”
What the purport teaches
- In the material world, people become friends, relatives, enemies and others in changing relationships. None of these relationships is permanent.
- The same person who is a friend today may become an enemy tomorrow. Such relationships arise from different dealings under different conditions.
- Everything is happening through association with the modes of material nature. In illusion, we accept temporary roles as fixed identities.
Try this today
When you label someone a friend or enemy today, pause and remember that such relationships can change.
Ask yourself
Am I treating a changing relationship as though it could never change?
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.