Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 9.8.24
Āśraya· The supreme shelterThe Lord’s Form Is Transcendental
“O completely peaceful Lord, although material nature, fruitive activities and their consequent material names and forms are Your creation, You are unaffected by them. Therefore, Your transcendental name is different from material names, and Your form is different from material forms. You assume a form resembling a material body just to give us instructions like those of Bhagavad-gītā, but actually You are the supreme original person. I therefore offer my respectful obeisances unto You.”
What the purport teaches
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead is completely peaceful and unaffected by His material creation. Material contamination is absent from Him and His pure devotee.
- The Lord has no material name or form, but this does not mean He is formless. He is the original person, with His own transcendental form.
- By serving the Lord constantly, one becomes free from material desires and completely peaceful. The devotee seeks the joy of being His eternal servant.
Try this today
Offer respectful obeisances to the Lord today and pray to serve Him with fewer material desires.
Ask yourself
How does understanding the Lord’s transcendental form deepen my desire to serve Him?
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.