Study a Verse

• An intelligent devotee knows that the passing days and nights are exhausting one’s duration of life, and he therefore gives up his futile attachment to material sense objects.
• Just as the detached bird immediately gives up its nest and goes to another tree, similarly, a devotee knows that there is no permanent opportunity for residence within the material world.
• Transcending the modes of material nature by attaining Kṛṣṇa’s own spiritual nature, the devotee at last obtains perfect peace.

The purport's own sentences, chosen from the purport as its central points. Read the full purport on Vedabase to see them in place.

Uncertainty → Clarity. The coming separation makes the instruction personally urgent.

Chapters 10–20 of Canto 11: Kṛṣṇa's teachings on self, yoga and wisdom. An editorial reading of the story's mood, not the text itself. See the emotional arc

Chapter 20: Pure Devotional Service Surpasses Knowledge and Detachment

From the chapter summary, the lines nearest this verse:

Such knowledge and devotion can be achieved in the human form of life, which is therefore a desirable object both for those living in hell and for the demigods. The human body, even though it awards the whole purpose of existence in the form of knowledge and devotion, is ephemeral; therefore one who is discriminating should soberly strive for liberation before death comes.