Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 6.17.21
Āśraya· The supreme shelterThe Lord Remains Beyond Material Modes
“The Supreme Personality of Godhead is one. Unaffected by the conditions of the material world, He creates all the conditioned souls by His own personal potency. Because of being contaminated by the material energy, the living entity is put into ignorance and thus into different conditions of bondage. Sometimes, by knowledge, the living entity is given liberation. In sattva-guṇa and rajo-guṇa, he is subjected to happiness and distress.”
What the purport teaches
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead acts through His own energies without anyone’s help. He remains unaffected by material conditions.
- Under His supervision, the external energy creates the material world. Through sattva-guṇa He maintains it, through rajo-guṇa He creates it, and through tamo-guṇa He annihilates it.
- Conditioned souls experience different states according to their association with the modes. Goodness brings happiness, passion brings distress, and ignorance obscures the understanding of right and wrong.
Try this today
Review one choice today and note whether it encouraged goodness, restless passion or confusion about right and wrong.
Ask yourself
How do the influences of goodness, passion and ignorance appear in my daily choices?
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.