Bhramite bhramite yadi sādhu-vaidya pāya. In this way we are being kicked up by māyā. But if by chance we get the shelter of a good physician . . . good physician means a bona fide spiritual master. Then, by his advice, just like a patient is cured by following the instruction of a bona fide physician, similarly, this disease of being kicked up from one body to another, this could be stopped by the instruction of a bona fide sādhu, saintly person, or spiritual master or śāstra, scripture.
So the scriptures and the saintly person and the spiritual master, they are on the same level. Because a sādhu who is a saintly person, he would not place anything which is not sanctioned by the scripture. Similarly, a bona fide spiritual master means he is following the footprints of the previous ācāryas; therefore he is bona fide. So scripture is the medium through which we have to get our experience and knowledge through the explanation of sādhu, saintly persons and spiritual master.
So there is a very nice verse quoted from Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu:
- kāmādīnāṁ kati na katidhā pālitā durnideśās
- teṣāṁ jātā mayi na karuṇā na trapā nopaśāntiḥ
- utsṛjyaitān atha yadu-pate sāmprataṁ labdha-buddhis
- tvām āyātaḥ śaraṇam abhayaṁ māṁ niyuṅkṣvātma-dāsye
- (CC Madhya 22.16)
A devotee is praying to the Lord that, "My dear Lord, I have experienced that I came to enjoy this material world, but actually I am being kicked up." "By whom you are kicked up?" Kāmādīnām. Kāma, krodha, lobha. There are six good friends. We have accepted them as good friends, but they are not good friends. What are they? The lust and the anger and the avarice and greediness. So many things.
So to serve the material world . . . to enjoy the material world, not serve. We don't wish to serve, we want to enjoy. But actually we become servant of all these principles, kāma, krodha, lobha, bhaya. We are servant of fearfulness, we are servant of malice, we are servant of lust, we are servant of anger, although we are thinking that, "I am master."
So one who has come to the senses that, "I am acting here as servant . . . I'm servant of my society, I am servant of my family, I am servant of my senses, I am servant of my . . ." So many things I have created. Up to death I am servant of dog, I'm servant of cat, and so many things I have become servant. But I am thinking, "I am master." This is called māyā.
So one who comes to the senses, he can understand that "I am not master, I am servant because I am constitutionally servant. I am subservient to the Supreme. I am expansion of Kṛṣṇa." Why? Because Kṛṣṇa meant that there would be so many expansions and "They would like to love Me, and I'll be enjoyer", Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.12).
Now suppose I keep some friends. Suppose I create some disciples. What is the idea? The idea is that we shall enjoy reciprocally. My disciples and we shall talk about Kṛṣṇa, and we shall eat together and we shall chant together. This is the idea.
Now if some of the disciples become overrule, then it becomes a very precarious condition for me. Similarly, God expanded Himself as the living entities for enjoyment, reciprocal, not that God's own enjoyment. When there is question of enjoyment, all the parties who participate in a particular type of enjoyment, they enjoy. So the perfection of enjoyment—when God desired that, "I should expand Myself so that I can enjoy." So His enjoyment is not deficient. But if we want not to enjoy with God but we want to enjoy in a different way, that is my misfortune.
So originally, as Lord Caitanya has explained in the very beginning, you may remember, that the constitutional position of the living entity is to serve. This point we have explained several times. So we cannot change that position. If you don't serve Kṛṣṇa, then we have to serve māyā. That position is there.
So here in this material world we are rendering service to these—kāma, krodha, lobha. We are servant of lust, we are servant of anger, we are servant of avarice, we are servant of so many things. So kāmādīnāṁ katidhā na katidhā. And servant, when one becomes servant, he has to execute anything which the masters order. Suppose one is serving some big man, he says that, "You do this. I want."
Now, to satisfy him one has to act according to his desire, which he may not like. Suppose one says that, "You go and tell this lie. It is required by me." Now, because I am in service . . . even great personalities like Bhīṣma, such a great personality, he could not join with the Pāṇḍava's party, because he became a servant of the Kurus. So servitude is such a thing.