Surrender service from maya's masters to Krishna's lotus feet—the perfection of freedom through divine servitude.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 22.14–19 — January 10, 1967, New York 670110CC-NEW YORK [28:28 Minutes] Prabhupāda: kāma-krodhera dāsa hañā tāra lāthi khāya bhramite bhramite yadi sādhu-vaidya pāya [Cc. Madhya 22.14] [In this way the conditioned soul becomes the servant of lusty desires, and when these are not fulfilled, he becomes the servant of anger and continues to be kicked by the external energy, māyā. Wandering and wandering throughout the universe, he may by chance get the association of a devotee physician, whose instructions and hymns make the witch of the external energy flee. The conditioned soul thus gets into touch with devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa, and in this way he can approach nearer and nearer to the Lord.] So we, the conditioned soul, is just like being kicked up by the material energy from this way to that way.
That is our position. And the kicking is by lust and anger. Icchā-dveṣa-samutthena sarge yānti parantapa [Bg. 7.27]. [O scion of Bharata [Arjuna], O conqueror of the foe, all living entities are born into delusion, overcome by the dualities of desire and hate.] We have got two things here in the conditioned life. We desire something, and if the desire is not fulfilled, then we become angry.
So in this way we are traveling, or, I mean to say, transmigrating from one body to another. Now this can be stopped. This process can be stopped. How? 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, Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 3.2.35] [O my Lord, there is no limit to the unwanted orders of lusty desires. Although I have rendered these desires so much service, they have not shown any mercy to me. I have not been ashamed to serve them, nor have I even desired to give them up. O my Lord, O head of the Yadu dynasty, recently, however, my intelligence has been awakened, and now I am giving them up. Due to transcendental intelligence, I now refuse to obey the unwanted orders of these desires, and I now come to You to surrender myself at Your fearless lotus feet. Kindly engage me in Your personal service and save me.] 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.