The Misconception

Sunahu Sadhak Pyare - Part 3

सदा ते ही हरि विमुख हैं, जीव अगनित प्यारे ।
हरि विमुख जीवों को माया, ने भुलाया प्यारे ॥

sadā te hī hari vimukha haiṃ, jīva aganita pyāre ।
hari vimukha jīvoṃ ko māyā, ne bhulāyā pyāre ॥

"All individual souls are away from God since eternity. Hence, Maya has conquered them and made them forget their true identity". The jiva I an eternal servant of Shri Krishna. The question arises, if Maya has made the souls forget their true identity, then why have the souls not gotten rid of Maya even after countless lifetimes? The answer is -

गुणमयी हरि शक्ति माया बलवति अति प्यारे ।

guṇamayī hari śakti māyā balavati ati pyāre ।

"Being a divine power of God Maya has immense power".

दैवी ह्येषा गुणमयी मम माया दुरत्यया |
मामेव ये प्रपद्यन्ते मायामेतां तरन्ति ते ||
गीता 7.14

daivī hyeṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā |
māmeva ye prapadyante māyāmetāṃ taranti te ||
gītā 7.14

“Maya is a power of God, therefor it is as powerful as God Himself. Maya is insentient and cannot do anything on its own. God grants it the power to perform all its work. So its power is equivalent to that of God. Therefore nobody (yogis, rishi, muni) in the whole world can overcome Maya. Only those who surrender to Him can overcome it.”

Lord Krishna used the Sanskrit word “Eva” (only) here. “Only the one, who surrenders himself completely unto Me alone, can traverse the ocean of Maya.”

Soul tries its best to overcome Maya by its own efforts like listening to the Vedas and scriptures from the great scholars. Although, conceptually the jiva knows that Maya has made me forget my original form, yet jiva is helpless in front of mighty Maya. Afterall, how could jiva possibly measure up to Almighty God's power? Hence, God says

सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज |
अहं त्वां सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुच: ||
गीता 18.66

sarvadharmānparityajya māmekaṃ śaraṇaṃ vraja |
ahaṃ tvāṃ sarvapāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śuca: ||
gītā 18.66

"Forget about using your power against Mine, surrender yourself completely unto Me alone. I'll forgive you all of your past sins. Stop thinking about everything".

But, instead of listening to Him, we use our trivial power by counting beads, chanting, performing ritualistic ceremonies and so on. So, the essence of entire knowledge is
1. Every jiva is an eternal servant of Happiness (God). So he wants happiness.
2. Each fraction is a natural servant of its whole. So, every jiva is a natural servant of God.
3. Jiva is eternally turned away from God. Hence Maya has gripped him. That is why soul has forgotten his true identity and has been identifing itself with the body.

देह नातेदार ते किय, प्यार निशिदिन प्यारे ।

deha nātedāra te kiya, pyāra niśidina pyāre ।

"Since the soul considers itself to be the body, it considers all physical relatives as its own relatives".

Body is made from father and mother, so it considers them to be its parents, then brothers, sisters and all the relatives. We consider all relatives of the body to be our well-wishers, and have forgotten about God. If we consider ourselves to be the soul, then we would consider God to be our relative. Is God our relative or is this material world our relative? You only have to understand that I am not a body, I am a soul, hence I am a part of Shri Krishna, hence I am a servant of Shri Krishna. And Shri Krishna is my only relative.

द्वा सुपर्णा सयुजा सखाया समानं वृक्षं परिषस्वजाते
तयोरन्यः पिप्पलं स्वाद्वत्त्यनश्नन्नन्यो अभिचाकशीति ॥

dvā suparṇā sayujā sakhāyā samānaṁ vṛkṣaṁ pariṣasvajāte |
tayoranyaḥ pippalaṁ svādvattyanaśnannanyo abhicākaśīti ||

That is, two personalities live in my heart - God and me. What is the relationship between the two? The Vedas says they always stay together. They are inseparable. While in this material world, no two relatives - mother father, brother sister etc. stay together forever.

कति नाम सुता न लालिता

kati nāma sutā na lālitā

We have made infinite mothers, fathers, sisters, sons, daughters in our past lives. In every birth we change relatives. Even in one lifetime, relatives may not stay together forever. The son may die before the father. There is no such rule that father has to die before the son. A mother may give birth to a child and die immediately thereafter. The child does not even get to know his mother.

All relatives come according to their deeds and go according to their deeds. Just like when you travel in a train. - you start a conversation with the person sitting next to you. Where are you going? What do you do? etc etc. Now the train stops at a station at which one of the passengers has to get off. He takes leave of the other passengers. If one of the remaining passengers objects saying "we were having such a good time. You should not get down, for if you do, I will be left alone." The person getting down says, “This is how it is. If you do not want to be left behind then come with me". The person getting off says “Sir just like you need to reach your destination, I need to reach mine". There are no co-passengers in this journey of life. Whoever’s time comes, will have to go. Mother, father, son, and daughter may keep grieving, but the soul will go. We have no control over death. It is in the hands of God. So the relationship of this world is temporary.