Study a Verse

• The words apāṁ mitram, “just like water,” can also be read as aghān mitram, which means that a saintly person purifies all living entities by accepting them as mitram, or his personal friends, and saves them from their sinful reactions (aghāt).
• A saintly person, however, is like pure water, free from all contamination and capable of purifying all things.
• Thus, by studying the nature of water one can understand the symptoms of a pure devotee of the Lord.

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.