Gita 07.14 – Knowledge of Krishna’s position brings intellectual force to our call of devotion

7.14 So krishna speaks here daivi divine yesha gunamayi mamamaya this maya gunamayi which is made of the three modes of material nature is divine indeed certainly mamamaya is my maya duradhaya very difficult to overcome mamevaya prapadyante mamevaya those who certainly those who surrender to me for them certainly what will happen mayam etam tarantite they will cross over this maya tarantite cross over go over this maya so this is a foundational verse for understanding how the process of bhakti works an example to illustrate this is suppose we go to somebody's house and that person has a big say german shepherd or dover man or some kind of dog and that dog starts charging at us and now we may stop we may do all those things but the dog is not our servant the dog keeps charging at us the dog catches our trousers in the mouth and is about to pierce its sharp fangs into our legs flesh so now at that time it is very difficult for us to fight off the dog its a giant dog and its a fierce dog and its already caught us so at such a time when it is very difficult for us to get out of that if we see this behind the master is watching and says sir please call your dog off its about to wound me please please I have come for some work for you I am not a threat to you so then they say tommy come back and that master just says one thing and thats it the dog just leaves us and goes back so the dog is under the control of the master and because of that what is frightening and formidably difficult for us to do is quite easy for the dogs master to do because the dogs master is having the power not just in terms of physical power but in terms of the emotional command over the dog by which it can order and the dog will obey so like that in this world illusion dogs us you know wherever you go you go just the word dog is normally used as a noun but dog is also used as a verb a dog if it holds on to a bone it just holds on to it so to doggedly follow someone means to doggedly hold on to something means to just hold on to it with a great determination often its used in a negative sense stubborn determination but dog as a verb also means to follow closely at the heels nobody likes to dog constantly so the point is that illusion constantly dogs us in this world at any moment not very far away from us at any moment it may nip us at any moment we may perceive some sense object and by perceiving that sense object we may start thinking oh this is this is pleasurable I want it and from that how quickly we may fall to pranashyati we may not even realize that so therefore our prospects for spiritual growth depend to a large extent on the possibility of our shaking off the dog of illusion and the way we can shake off this dog is by ensuring that we have the spiritual connection with the lord of the dog with Krishna so now calling out to Krishna's name when we are tempted is of course vital but calling out to Krishna is not just only restricted to calling out his name that is an important part of it more important thing is that there has to be an emotional fervency and urgency in our call to Krishna because it is that emotional fervency and urgency that inspires that shows Krishna sincerity and that shows Krishna that we are not just doing that activity mechanically as a ritual but we are eager for a result that we are eager for him to intervene not just eager we are desperate so just as a person who is about to be bitten by a dog will have sense of fervency, urgency and desperation in calling out to the master similarly we also need to call out to Krishna with a with a emotional zing with a emotional force in the call and that emotional force doesn't come unless we have a tangible connection with Krishna we have sufficient conviction about Krishna's capacity to intervene and we have sufficient conviction of Krishna's willingness and eagerness to intervene so when we philosophically understand that Krishna is God, that Krishna is omnipotent, that Krishna is benevolent then at that time we can call out to Krishna urgently permanently because say if we are being bitten by a dog and we see a small child nearby, now we won't call the child to help I am a big person and I am not able to stop this dog, what can this child do so we will call for help from a person who we feel is capable of helping, similarly we need the intellectual philosophical conviction that Krishna is indeed capable of helping us and Krishna is desirous of helping us, that means he is omnipotent and benevolent and that will bring emotional force into our call for Krishna and that's why as devotees it's important for us to hear about Krishna's glories and to contemplate those glories and to internalize those glories and then we will be able to experience this that those who surrender to me they will cross over illusion and this happens the truth of this verse can happen at a at a moment to moment level where sometimes we feel strongly overcome by illusion and we feel the need to need of Krishna to counter that illusion to resist the desires created by that illusion so it can happen that temptation attacks us and we resist the temptation by calling out to Krishna but this also applies at a macro level to our whole material existence that to the extent we are surrendered to Krishna to the extent we are calling out to Krishna to that extent we will be able to cross over the illusions of this world as and when they come upon us so if we are regularly connected to Krishna then the possibility of our being vulnerable to illusions decreases and that's how Maya Maitam Tarantate applies to us we surrender to Krishna stay half-hearted thinking that maybe I should surrender to Krishna maybe I should not surrender to Krishna maybe I should try to enjoy in this world itself maybe even if I decide to turn towards Krishna maybe Krishna will not be able to protect me so we have to understand Krishna's protection in two terms one is that Krishna can not only overcome temptation for us giving us the strength to resist temptation but Krishna can also give us higher satisfaction than what Maya is offering us so our surrender to Krishna will become wholehearted when we understand both his greatness and his sweetness Maya appears very sweet initially and that's why we feel how can I live without this pleasure and then sometimes when we try to leave the Maya then she appears very great the force with which she pulls us and the strength with which she traps us seems irresistible so we understand philosophically Krishna's greatness that Krishna is greater than Maya and therefore even if Maya is holding us Krishna can release us we discussed the example of the dog and the master for that but another way of understanding this is that yes Maya appears sweet but whatever sweetness is there in Maya that is only a fraction of Krishna's sweetness when we understand Krishna is the master of Maya we also understand that actually Krishna's sweetness is greater than Maya's sweetness far greater than Maya's sweetness and therefore by surrendering to Krishna we won't be deprived of happiness we won't be deprived of sweetness rather we will be enriched with far greater sweetness thus by understanding Krishna's position both his greatness and his sweetness we can bring the intellectual force intellectual conviction into our call of devotion and thus call out fervently and gain Krishna's protecting and uplifting mercy.