Maya

Lecture - Los Angeles, December 23, 1968

Prabhupada: …Krishna says, kaunteya pratijanihi na me bhaktah pranasyati [Bg. 9.31]. You just declare, "My devotee will never be vanquished by maya." Mayacannot do anything. Simply you have to become strong. And what is that strength? Chant Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, loudly.

Woman devotee: What is maya? I know that it's attractive...

Prabhupada: Maya means which drags you from Krishna. That is maya.

Woman devotee: Is it a spiritual form?

Prabhupada: Whatever form may be, [it is] force. We shall see form later on. Just like a police sends a warrant, arrest. You do not ask what is the form of the police, but here is warrant, you have to go. Force, that's all. Similarly, don't try to understand what is maya's form, but you just feel her force, how she is acting. How she is putting you in difficulty. You see? There are so many things. Maya puts into this difficulty and you are encumbered. That we have to understand, how I have become encumbered. In my childhood I was free. There was no encumbrances. Now I am encumbered. I am harassed. This is maya's action. So if you want to get out of thismaya's influence, then you have to become Krishna consciousness. There is no other alternative. Chant Hare Krishna. (kirtana) (end)

Letter to: Robert Hendry, Los Angeles, 3 August, 1969

My Dear Robert Hendry,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your nice letter dated July 13, 1969, but mailed on July 29th, and now it is in hand. I can understand from your letter that you are a quite fit soldier for fighting with Maya. Our Krishna Consciousness Movement is a declaration of war against the activities of Maya. The real description of Maya is given in a Vedic literature called Markandeya Purana in the chapter Candika. Candika is another name of the external energy called Maya. ThisCandika  is described there as the Goddess who is putting all conditioned souls in darkness. In this material world, every living entity is under the spell of this Candika, almost asleep in darkness of knowledge. Every living entity is part and parcel spirit soul, but in contact with Maya it has developed different types of consciousness, represented by varieties of bodies, beginning from the aquatics and going to the bodies of demigods in higher planets. These different grades of bodies are developing in terms of life. When the consciousness comes to the point of Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then life becomes perfect in its original condition. Therefore, in a sense this Krishna Consciousness Movement is declaring war against Candika, who has kept the living entities under her spell. Candika's first spell is to make us identify ourselves with these material conditions. Just like a living entity, because he is born and brought up in American condition, he thinks himself as American, similarly, others are thinking they are Indians, or Canadians, or French and so on. Actually, one is none of these material designations, but he is pure Krishna Consciousness, now covered by the spell of Candika's energy, or the material energy.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is, 6.37, Purport

One may sincerely accept the path of self-realization, but the process of cultivation of knowledge and the practice of the eightfold yoga system are generally very difficult for this age. Therefore, despite constant endeavor, one may fail for many reasons. First of all, one may not be following the process. To pursue the transcendental path is more or less to declare war on illusory energy. Consequently, whenever a person tries to escape the clutches of the illusory energy, she tries to defeat the practitioner by various allurements. A conditioned soul is already allured by the modes of material energy, and there is every chance of being allured again, even while performing transcendental disciplines. This is called yogat calita-manasah: deviation from the transcendental path.

Srimad-Bhagavatam, 1.8.19, Purport

Such persons could not recognize Lord Sri Krishna even when He was present before them. Another difficulty is that those who depend more on their imperfect senses cannot realize Him as the Supreme Lord. Such persons are like the modern scientist. They want to know everything by their experimental knowledge. But it is not possible to know the Supreme Person by imperfect experimental knowledge. He is described herein as adhoksaja, or beyond the range of experimental knowledge.All our senses are imperfect. We claim to observe everything and anything, but we must admit that we can observe things under certain material conditions only, which are also beyond our control. The Lord is beyond the observation of sense perception.

Teachings of Queen Kunti, Chapter 23

Pratyaksa, the process of receiving knowledge through direct perception, has no value, because our senses are all imperfect. For example, every day we see the sun to be just like a small disc, perhaps twelve inches in diameter, but in fact it is a hundred times larger than the earth. So what is the value of our direct perception through our eyes? We have so many senses through which we can experience knowledge - the eyes, the ears, the nose, and so on - but because these senses are imperfect, whatever knowledge we get by exercising these senses is also imperfect.