Study a Verse

• Although the sky appears to be affected by the mighty movements of wind, rain, hurricanes, lightning and thunder, etc., the sky, being very subtle, is actually not affected, but is rather the background for such visible activities.
• Similarly, although the material body and mind undergo innumerable changes, such as birth and death, happiness and distress, love and hate, the eternal living entity is merely the background for such activities.
• The spirit soul, being most subtle, is not actually affected; only due to misidentification with the superficial activities of the body and mind does the soul undergo terrible distress within 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 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. Because of the knowledge he had gained from them, he was able to travel about the earth in a liberated state.