Study a Verse

• Thus the sage proceeds with his analysis but returns to the example of fire to illustrate the need for renunciation.
• The flames of a fire constantly take birth and disappear, yet we perceive the fire as a continuous reality.
• Similarly, the soul is a continuous reality, although his material bodies appear and disappear constantly, by the influence of time.

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:

From the moon he had learned how the various phases the material body undergoes — birth, growth, dwindling and death — do not affect the embodied soul. From the sun he had learned how to avoid entanglement even while coming into contact with sense objects, and he had also learned about the two different modes of perception based on seeing the real form of the soul and seeing false designative coverings.