SB 07.09.21 maya manah srjati karmamayam baliyah... cited

Expressions researched:
"chandomayam yad ajayarpita-sodasaram" |"kalena codita-gunanumatena pumsah" |"maya manah srjati karmamayam baliyah" |"samsara-cakram aja ko 'titaret tvad-anyah"

SB Canto 7

SB 7.9.21, Translation and Purport:

O Lord, O supreme eternal, by expanding Your plenary portion You have created the subtle bodies of the living entities through the agency of Your external energy, which is agitated by time. Thus the mind entraps the living entity in unlimited varieties of desires to be fulfilled by the Vedic directions of karma-kāṇḍa (fruitive activity) and the sixteen elements. Who can get free from this entanglement unless he takes shelter at Your lotus feet?

If the hand of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is present in everything, where is the question of being liberated from material encagement to spiritual, blissful life? Indeed, it is a fact that Kṛṣṇa is the source of everything, as we understand from Kṛṣṇa Himself in Bhagavad-gītā (ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavaḥ (BG 10.8)). All the activities in both the spiritual and material world are certainly conducted by the orders of the Supreme Personality of Godhead through the agency of either the material or spiritual nature. As further confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (9.10), mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sacarācaram: without the direction of the Supreme Lord, material nature cannot do anything; it cannot act independently. Therefore, in the beginning the living entity wanted to enjoy the material energy, and to give the living entity all facility, Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, created this material world and gave the living entity the facility to concoct different ideas and plans through the mind. These facilities offered by the Lord to the living entity constitute the sixteen kinds of perverted support in terms of the knowledge-gathering senses, the working senses, the mind and the five material elements. The wheel of repeated birth and death is created by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but to direct the bewildered living entity in progress toward liberation according to varied stages of advancement, different directions are given in the Vedas (chandomayam). If one wants to be elevated to the higher planetary systems, he may follow the Vedic directions. As the Lord states in Bhagavad-gītā (9.25):

yānti deva-vratā devān

pitṟn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ

bhūtāni yānti bhūtejyā

yānti mad-yājino 'pi mām

"Those who worship the demigods will take birth among the demigods; those who worship ghosts and spirits will take birth among such beings; those who worship ancestors go to the ancestors; and those who worship Me will live with Me." The real purpose of the Vedas is to direct one back home, back to Godhead, but the living entity, not knowing the real goal of his life, wants to go sometimes here and sometimes there and do sometimes this and sometimes that. In this way he wanders throughout the entire universe, imprisoned in various species and thus engaging in various activities for which he must suffer the reactions. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore says:

brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva

guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja

(CC Madhya 19.151)

The fallen, conditioned living entity, trapped by the external energy, loiters in the material world, but if by good fortune he meets a bona fide representative of the Lord who gives him the seed of devotional service, and if he takes advantage of such a guru, or representative of God, he receives the bhakti-latā-bīja, the seed of devotional service. If he properly cultivates Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he is then gradually elevated to the spiritual world. The ultimate conclusion is that one must surrender to the principles of bhakti-yoga, for then one will gradually attain liberation. No other method of liberation from the material struggle is at all possible.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 7.9.21 -- Mayapur, February 28, 1976:

Dayānanda: "O my Lord, the supreme eternal, by expansion of Your plenary portion You have created a subtle body, the living entity, through the agency of Your external energy. And thus the living entity becomes entrapped with different varieties of desires through the mind, consisting of unlimited desires to be fulfilled by the Vedic direction of karma-kāṇḍa, fruitive activity, and the sixteen elements. Who is there who can come out of this entanglement without taking shelter at Your lotus feet?"

Prabhupāda:

māyā manaḥ sṛjati karmamayaṁ balīyaḥ

kālena codita-guṇānumatena puṁsaḥ

chandomayaṁ yad ajayārpita-ṣoḍaśāraṁ

saṁsāra-cakram aja ko 'titaret tvad-anyaḥ

(SB 7.9.21)

This is the description of material existence. So, first thing is, our mind is polluted. The simple statement of a Vaiṣṇava poet,

kṛṣṇa bhuliya jīva bhoga vāñchā kare

pāsate māyāra tāre jāpaṭiyā dhāre

Actually our position is to serve Kṛṣṇa. That is real position. Caitanya Mahāprabhu starts His instruction from this point, that we are eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa, and because we have rebelled not to serve, therefore Kṛṣṇa, out of His unlimited mercy and compassion, He comes down and teaches, "You rascal, surrender. Why you are suffering unnecessarily?" Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ: (BG 18.66) "You rascal, you give up all these so-called engagements. You surrender to Me."

So from this point Caitanya Mahāprabhu starts His instruction. When Sanātana Gosvāmī approached Him that "By Your mercy I have left my this material engagement. I was minister. I was very much puffed up. So by good fortune I saw You. Now I have retired from my so-called happy life. Now please tell me what is my position?" Ke āmi kene āmāre jāre tāpa traya: "Why I am? What I am? Why I am put into this condition of suffering?" Just like one goes to the physician, a diseased man. He submits and inquires from the physician that "Why I am suffering from this pain? Some pain always in the heart, some pain in the belly, some pain in head. So what is the disease?" So Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, "The disease is that you are servant of Kṛṣṇa. You are, rascal, trying to be master of the world." This is the struggle. A servant is trying to become master. How it is possible? It is simply entanglement. Just like in an office, a menial servant, if he wants to imitate the master, he'll be involved in so many difficulties. So that is our position.

Lecture on SB 7.9.21 -- Mayapur, February 28, 1976:

So when we imitate Kṛṣṇa—we want to be complete in ourself without the help of Kṛṣṇa—this is called māyā. Māyā means that we want to imitate Kṛṣṇa. That is going on, material world. Therefore you'll find these Māyāvādīs... (aside:) Who is that? Take him out. The Māyāvādīs, they persist on this point, that "I am God." The māyā is working there. Māyā is working there still, although he is thinking that "I am now liberated. I have become Nārāyaṇa." Ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninaḥ. He is thinking that "I am God." That means he is in the darkest region of māyā, and still, he is thinking that he's liberated. He is thinking what he's not. At the present moment, you'll find, the whole world is filled up with these rascals. They are in the deepest region of māyā and concocting that he is God, he is God. This is māyā. Therefore it is said, māyā manaḥ. The māyā manaḥ is so strong that māyā manaḥ sṛjati karmamayaṁ balīyaḥ. Very strong. His material existence began from this point, that "Why shall I serve Kṛṣṇa? I shall remain independent." But the rascal does not know that he cannot become independent. That is not possible. But this is the beginning of material life. "Why shall I accept God? I am God." So the same thing is continuing in different phases.

Lecture on SB 7.9.21 -- Mayapur, February 28, 1976:

Māyā is very strong. You have seen the picture of Māyā, Durgādevī, and the Mahiṣāsura is fighting, very strong, just like Hiraṇyakaśipu. There are many asuras. So Mahiṣa... Sometimes Kṛṣṇa Himself comes to kill the asura, or sometimes His agent, Māyā, Durgādevī, kills. You have seen the picture of Goddess Kālī. She is killing simply the asuras, chopping one after another, one after another, one after... Sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir ekā (Bs. 5.44). She can create, she can maintain, and she can make pralaya, devastator. That is her business. But so powerful, still, she is under the control of the Supreme Lord. Therefore here it is said, saṁsāra-cakram aja ko 'titaret tvad-anyaḥ. "A strong māyā. I cannot get out of her clutches." So Prahlāda Mahārāja knows it. Ko 'titaret: "Who can surpass? Who can get rid of this clutches of māyā?" Tvad-anyaḥ. That is the fact. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says that "You surrender to Me, and you'll be free from māyā." Sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ sara..., ahaṁ tvām: (BG 18.66) "I'll give you protection." Mām eva ye prapadyante. The same thing, whole instruction, is there. Simply if we want to be happy... Happiness you cannot have in this way, by concocting plans. That is not possible. You have seen the whole world, especially in the modern days. So many big, big nations, they are assembled together in the United Nations. Nonsense, where is unity? Simply disunity. For the last twenty or thirty years they are struggling. Before that, they convened another, League of Nation. So they are making simply plans. And it continues for some time. Then, after fifteen or twenty years, again conflagration of war, especially in the Europe. They're all demons. How the demons can bring in peace by so-called United Nation or League of Nation? That is not possible. They have to give up the demonic activities. They have to take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Then they will be saved.