Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 7.2.24
Mukti· LiberationYou Are Not the Agitated Mind
“In the same way, O my gentle mother, when the mind is agitated by the movements of the modes of material nature, the living entity, although freed from all the different phases of the subtle and gross bodies, thinks that he has changed from one condition to another.”
What the purport teaches
- When the modes of material nature agitate the mind, the living entity thinks that he too has changed. Yet ātmā, the spirit soul, remains unchanged.
- Identifying the body as the self is condemned in the śāstras. Even learning and high social position do not free a person from this bodily conception.
- When carried away by mental activities, we suffer material conditions of life. The purport warns that exalted material qualities without devotion do not give knowledge of the spirit’s higher existence.
Try this today
Notice one changing mood today and remind yourself, “This mental condition is changing; the spirit soul is unchanged.”
Ask yourself
When your mind becomes unsettled, can you distinguish its agitation from your identity as spirit soul?
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.