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Read one verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam with its Sanskrit, word meanings, translation and study points.

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Canto 2 · The Cosmic Manifestation · 10 chapters

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How to study this verse, in six steps
  1. 1Chant the verse. Say the Sanskrit slowly and carefully.
  2. 2Read the word meanings. Go through each Sanskrit word and its meaning.
  3. 3Find the meaning yourself. Before the translation, piece the meaning together from the words.
  4. 4Read the translation. Ask: what is the Lord teaching here, and how does it apply to my life?
  5. 5Read the purport slowly. Read it two or three times. Don't rush.
  6. 6Write down what touched you. Note the main points in your own notebook.
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Canto 2 · Chapter 5: The Cause of All Causes
2.5.232.5.25

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam · Text 2.5.24

Sarga· Creation
Who is speaking and story frame
Speaking:Lord Brahmāsince 2.5.9inside 3 frames: Sūta Gosvāmī → the sages at NaimiṣāraṇyaŚukadeva Gosvāmī → King ParīkṣitLord Brahmā → Nārada Muni

सोऽहङ्कार इति प्रोक्तो विकुर्वन् समभूत्‍त्रिधा ।

वैकारिकस्तैजसश्च तामसश्चेति यद्भिदा ।

द्रव्यशक्ति: क्रियाशक्तिर्ज्ञानशक्तिरिति प्रभो ॥ २४ ॥

so ’haṅkāra iti prokto

vikurvan samabhūt tridhā

vaikārikas taijasaś ca

tāmasaś ceti yad-bhidā

dravya-śaktiḥ kriyā-śaktir

jñāna-śaktir iti prabho

Translation

The self-centered materialistic ego, thus being transformed into three features, becomes known as the modes of goodness, passion and ignorance in three divisions, namely the powers that evolve matter, knowledge of material creations, and the intelligence that guides such materialistic activities. Nārada, you are quite competent to understand this.

Read Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport on Vedabase.io
1

Understand it

Three study points drawn from the translation and purport.

Purify Self-Centered Ego Through Devotional Service

  1. 1

    Materialistic ego means identifying with matter and being self-centered without clear knowledge of God. This egoism keeps the living entity bound to material existence.

  2. 2

    The Supreme Personality of Godhead has an eternal spiritual form of knowledge, bliss and existence. He is unborn and unchangeable, not a conditioned soul who takes a material body.

  3. 3

    Artificially increasing material demands deepens ignorance; devotional service purifies the materialistic senses. The remedy is to offer one’s actions, food, gifts and austerities to the Lord.

Key points from the purport
  • And this self-centered egoism of the materialistic living entities is the cause of their being conditioned by the other paraphernalia and continuing their bondage of material existence.
  • The conditioned soul may take a form birth after birth due to his conditional existence in matter, but the self-centered impersonalists, by their gross ignorance, accept the Lord as one of them because of self-centered egoism, even after so-called advancement of knowledge in the Vedānta.
  • By the will of the Lord, therefore, the impersonalist, even after knowing the Brahman and Paramātmā features of the Lord, remains ignorant of His eternal personal feature as ever-existent Nārāyaṇa, transcendental to all material creation.

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

Connected verses· 1

The purport of SB 2.5.24 quotesBG 9.27

In order to rectify this great anomaly of materialistic civilization, based on the principles of dravya-śakti and kriyā-śakti, one has to adopt the process of devotional service of the Lord by adoption of the principles of karma-yoga, mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.27) as follows: “O son of Kuntī, all that you do, all that you eat, all that you offer…

Each link is a verse the purport itself quotes, or a purport elsewhere that quotes this verse, shown with the purport's own words.

How it feels

Uncertainty → Awe. The scale of reality widens dramatically.

Chapters 4–7 of Canto 2: The creation, cosmic Person and incarnations. An editorial reading of the story's mood, not the text itself. See the emotional arc

Further reading

Chapter 5: The Cause of All Causes

Nārada questions Brahmā, who explains his dependence on the Supreme Lord and describes creation.

Back to this verse in chapter 2.5
2

Word for word

Learn the Sanskrit words of the verse.

  1. saḥthe very same thing
  2. ahaṅkāraḥego
  3. itithus
  4. proktaḥsaid
  5. vikurvanbeing transformed
  6. samabhūtbecame manifested
  7. tridhāin three features
  8. vaikārikaḥin the mode of goodness
3

Key ideas in this verse

The subject this verse serves and the themes it speaks of.

  • Sarga · The creation of the universe

    Where does the universe come from? · Subject 1 of 10

  • Jñāna · Spiritual insight

    Inquiry, revelation and discrimination between self and matter. · Theme in SB 2.5

    In this verse: “knowledge”, “understand”

  • Moha · Material attachment

    The pull of ego, desire and impermanent relationships. · Theme in SB 2.5

    In this verse: “materialistic”

  • Bhakti · Devotion and loving service

    How devotion reorganizes desire and action. · Theme in SB 2.5

    In this verse: “devotional service”

4

Live it

Take one thing from this verse into your day.

Ask yourself

Which ordinary activity could I turn from a self-centered pursuit into an offering to the Lord?

Practice

Choose one task today and consciously perform it as an offering to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

5

The story around it

The story this chapter belongs to.

6

Connected stories

Keep going: stories told elsewhere in the Bhāgavatam that this verse or its purport brings in.

Found where this verse or Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport names them. See all of chapter 2.5's connections

Live this todayPurify Self-Centered Ego Through Devotional ServiceThis verse's lesson: one practice and one question for today

Study points are short summaries, not the translation. Confirm them in the original text and purport on Vedabase.

Ask the BhāgavatamHave a question about SB 2.5.24? Get an answer from the verses themselves.
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