Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 7.2.35
Ūti· What drives us to actKeeping the Body Cannot Keep the Person
“The time was appropriate for the body to be burned, but the queens, not allowing it to be taken away, continued lamenting for the dead body, which they kept on their laps. In the meantime, the sun completed its movements for setting in the west.”
What the purport teaches
- The queens held the dead body on their laps and would not allow it to be taken away. Their lamentation continued as the sun set.
- The purport explains that the Vedic custom was to complete a daytime death’s funeral before sunset, or a nighttime death’s funeral before sunrise. Their grief delayed the funeral.
- The queens thought that keeping the body would somehow keep their husband with them. The purport identifies this as the strong bodily conception of life, which mistakes the body for the self.
Try this today
Reread the verse and quietly reflect: keeping a body is not the same as keeping the person present.
Ask yourself
How can distinguishing the person from the body deepen your understanding of loss?
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.