Study a Verse

• Unless one has practical realization of the Supreme Soul and the individual soul, who reside together within the heart of every living being, it is very difficult to artificially adopt the sannyāsa order of life and travel without the association of wife, children or other family members.
• One who has realized the Supreme Person is satisfied to always carry the Personality of Godhead within his heart as his constant companion.
• Unless one has realized that Kṛṣṇa is one’s only true friend and that Kṛṣṇa is within one’s heart, one will remain attached to the temporary relationships of the material world.

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:

The son of Yayāti, Mahārāja Yadu, once encountered an avadhūta who was traveling about, here and there, in great transcendental ecstasy and was acting unpredictably, just like someone who has become haunted by a ghost. The King inquired from the holy man about the cause of his wandering and his ecstatic condition, and the avadhūta replied that he had received various instructions from twenty-four different gurus — the earth, the wind, the sky, the water, fire, and so on.