Study a Verse

• Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura explains that within the Ganges flow great currents of water, capable of extinguishing a blazing fire.
• If an elephant maddened by sex desire stands within the Ganges, its powerful, cooling currents extinguish his lust, and the elephant becomes pacified.
• But if, following the example of the elephant, one situates oneself within the cooling waves of transcendental bliss, then all material desire will soon be extinguished, and one will become śānta, or peaceful.

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

Grief and dependence → Detachment. The temporary world becomes a source of spiritual instruction.

Chapters 7–9 of Canto 11: The avadhuta's twenty-four teachers. An editorial reading of the story's mood, not the text itself. See the emotional arc

Chapter 7: Lord Kṛṣṇa Instructs Uddhava

From the chapter summary, the lines nearest this verse:

Even great demigods like Brahmā are not completely surrendered to the Lord, but Uddhava declared that he himself had taken shelter of the only true instructor of the Absolute Truth — Lord Nārāyaṇa, the all-perfect, all-knowing master of Vaikuṇṭha and the only real friend of all living entities. Hearing this, the Supreme Lord replied that actually the jīva soul is his own guru.