Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 7.11.33-34
Ūti· What drives us to actExhausted Enjoyment May Lead to Detachment
“My dear King, if an agricultural field is cultivated again and again, the power of its production decreases, and whatever seeds are sown there are lost. Just as drops of ghee on a fire never extinguish the fire but a flood of ghee will, similarly, overindulgence in lusty desires mitigates such desires entirely.”
What the purport teaches
- The translation compares repeated enjoyment to repeatedly cultivating a field until its productive power decreases. Seeds sown in such a field are lost.
- Small drops of ghee keep a fire burning, while a large amount may possibly extinguish it. Similarly, repeated indulgence may eventually bring detachment from lusty desires.
- The purport explains that certain allowances for sinful enjoyment offer a chance for those activities to become detestable to the people pursuing them. That disgust may give them an opportunity to become purified.
Try this today
Write down one enjoyment that has become tiresome and reflect on whether your attachment to it is weakening.
Ask yourself
Have I experienced an enjoyment becoming tiresome rather than satisfying?
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.