The Best Agent of Krishna

Smita Krishna Dasa - 16.11 2018

The energy of the living entities is technically called kshetragna energy. This kshetragna-shakti, although equal in quality with the Lord, becomes overpowered by material energy out of ignorance and thus suffers all sorts of material miseries. In other words, the living entities are located in the marginal energy between the superior (spiritual) and inferior (material) energies, and in proportion to the living being's contact with either the material or spiritual energies, the living entity is situated in proportionately higher and lower levels of existence.

"The Lord is beyond the inferior and marginal energies as above mentioned, and His spiritual energy is manifested in three different phases: as eternal existence, eternal bliss and eternal knowledge. As far as eternal existence is concerned, it is conducted by the sandhini potency; similarly, bliss and knowledge are conducted by the hlādhini and samvit potencies respectively. As the supreme energetic Lord, He is the supreme controller of the spiritual, marginal and material energies. And all these different types of energies are connected with the Lord in eternal devotional service.

When we speak of Krishna, Krishna is not alone. Just like if we speak of king, "The king is coming," it does not mean the king is coming alone. The king is coming, his ministers, his secretaries, his military commanders, his queens, his servants, so many other servitors of the king, they are also coming. Similarly, when we speak of Krishna, Krishna does not mean alone.  Krishna is the root of all emanations. Krishn's energies, Krishn's expansion, Krishn's different types of energies, parāsya shaktir vividhaiva shrūyate [Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport]. He has got multi-energies, out of which the ācāryas have taken three principal energies, the external energy, the internal energy, the marginal energy. All together means Krishna. 

"The Supreme Lord is the controller of all other controllers, and He is the greatest of all the diverse planetary leaders. Everyone is under His control. All entities are delegated with particular power only by the Supreme Lord; they are not supreme themselves. He is also worshipable by all demigods and is the supreme director of all directors. Therefore, He is transcendental to all kinds of material leaders and controllers and is worshipable by all. There is no one greater than Him, and He is the supreme cause of all causes.

"He does not possess bodily form like that of an ordinary living entity. There is no difference between His body and His soul. He is absolute. All His senses are transcendental. Any one of His senses can perform the action of any other sense. Therefore, no one is greater than Him or equal to Him. His potencies are multifarious, and thus His deeds are automatically performed as a natural sequence." (shvetāshvatara Upaniṣad 6.7-8)

Since everything is in full opulence in the Personality of Godhead and is existing in full truth, there is no duty for the Supreme Personality of Godhead to perform. One who must receive the results of work has some designated duty, but one who has nothing to achieve within the three planetary systems certainly has no duty.

Devi-dhāma consisting of the fourteen worlds and Durgā is its presiding deity. She is ten-armed, representing the tenfold fruitive activities. She rides on the lion, representing her heroic prowess. She tramples down Mahishāsura, representing the subduer of vices. She is the mother of two sons, Kārttikeya and Ganesha, representing beauty and success. She is placed between Lakshmi and Sarasvati, representing mundane opulence and mundane knowledge. She is armed with the twenty weapons, representing the various pious activities enjoined by the Vedas for suppression of vices. She holds the snake, representing the beauty of destructive time. Such is Durgā possessing all these manifold forms. 

Durgā is possessed of durga, which means a prison house. When jivas begotten of the marginal potency (tatasthā shakti) forget the service of Krishna they are confined in the mundane prison house, the citadel of Durgā. The wheel of karma is the instrument of punishment at this place. The work of purifying these penalized jivas is the duty devolved upon Durgā. She is incessantly engaged in discharging the same by the will of Govinda. When, luckily. the forgetfulness of Govinda on the part of imprisoned jivas is remarked by them by coming in contact with self-realized souls and their natural aptitude for the loving service of Krishna is aroused, Durgā herself then becomes the agency of their deliverance by the will of Govinda. 

So it behooves everybody to obtain the guileless grace of Durgā, the mistress of this prison house, by propitiating her with the selfless service of Krishna. The boons received from Durgā in the shape of wealth, property, recovery from illness, of wife and sons, should be realized as the deluding kindness of Durgā. Jiva is a spiritual atomic part of Krishna. When he forgets his service of Krishna he is at once deflected by the attracting power of Māyā in this world, who throws him into the whirlpool of mundane fruitive activity (karma) by confining him in a gross body constituted by the five material elements, their five attributes and eleven senses, resembling the garb of a prisoner. 

In this whirlpool jiva has experience of happiness and miseries, heaven and hell. Besides this, there is a subtle body. consisting of the mind, intelligence and ego, inside the gross body. By means of the subtle body. the jīva forsakes one gross body and takes recourse to another. The jīva cannot get rid of the subtle body. full of nescience and evil desires, unless and until he is liberated. On getting rid of the subtle body he bathes in the Virajā and goes up to Hari-dhāma. Such are the duties performed by Durgā in accordance with the will of Govinda.

Therefore all devotees of Lord Krishna are also devotees of Lord Shiva or Goddess Durgā. In Vrindāvana there is Lord Shiva's temple called Gopishvara. The gopis used to worship not only Lord Shiva but Kātyāyani, or Durgā, as well, but their aim was to attain the favor of Lord Krishna. A devotee of Lord Krishna does not disrespect Lord Shiva or Goddess Durgā, but worships them as the most exalted devotees of Lord Krishna. Consequently whenever a devotee worships  Lord Shiva or Goddess Durgā, he prays to them to achieve the favor of Krishna, and he does not request material profit. In Bhagavad-gitā (7.20) it is said that generally people worship demigods for some material profit. Driven by material lust, they worship demigods, but a devotee never does so, for he is never driven by material lust.

That is the difference between a devotee's respect for Lord Shiva or Goddess Durgā  and an asura's respect for him. The asura non devotee of Krishna worships  Lord Shiva or Goddess Durgā, takes some benediction from them, misuses the benediction and ultimately is killed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krishna, who awards him liberation.