Section 28
Mäyä Feels Shy to Appear Before the Lord

Lord Brahmä told Närada (S.B. 2.5.12,13):

          I offer my obeisances and meditate upon Lord Krsna (Vasudeva),  the Personality of Godhead, whose invincible potency influences them (the less intelligent class of men) to call me the Supreme controller. The illusory energy of the Lord cannot take precedence, being ashamed of her position, but those who are bewildered by her always talk nonsense, being absorbed in thoughts of 'It is I' and 'It is mine.'

           Maya, knowing herself defective, owing to the presence of the material modes such as ignorance, and realizing the Lord to be blissful, eternal, all-knowing, and thus free from defects, feels shy to stand before the Lord and flees from Him, but less intelligent persons like me, bewildered by her, boast of 'I' and 'Mine'.

 

PURPORT
           Maya bewilders the conditioned soul in a number of ways.  One is to cover the Lord so that people consider Him material.  Maya cannot put the Lord into ignorance the way a living entity gets covered, but she can hide the Lord so that the ignorant cannot see Him as He is. In the Bhagavad-gita Kåñëa says (B.g. 9.11): 

          "Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form.  They do not know My transcendental nature as the Supreme Lord of all that be".

          Another way Mäyä bewilders the conditioned soul is to make him consider a human being the Supreme Person.  In the last anuccheda it was shown that the Lord is not an ordinary person nor is He material.  This anuccheda explains that an ordinary person can never be the Personality of Godhead and whoever thinks in this way is certainly bewildered by Mäyä vimohitä.  Such bewilderment is prevalent in modern times especially in India, the land of incarnations.  There is always a so-called incarnation appearing in India, showering His blessings on a band of dullards with a poor fund of scriptural knowledge.

          Närada Muni once approached his father, Lord Brahmä, the creator and the first person in the mundane universe.  Brahmä is the father and teacher of great sages like the Kumäras and the Prajäpatis.  Närada thought Lord Brahmä was the Supreme Lord yet he could not comprehend why he had undergone severe austerities to accomplish the work of creation.  This created doubt in his mind.  The Supreme Lord has natural powers and opulences.  He cannot not depend on anyone for anything.  In contrast modern so-called incarnations depend on business tycoons or trickery to maintain their godhood.  Therefore, after eulogizing Lord Brahmä for his prowess as the creator, Närada Muni posed this relevant question to his father: "Is there anybody above you?"

          Brahmä is a pure devotee of Lord Kåñëa and thus completely free from the cheating propensity.  He was neither flattered by Närada's eulogy nor did he misguide his son in replying to his question.  Although he is very powerful, knowledgeable and intelligent and actually guëävatära, he did not pose as an avatära puruña. He immediately prayed to the Lord who had empowered him to create the universe.  Lord Brahmä said that Mäyä is very difficult to surpass (durjayä) and therefore people fall prey to her.  Being bewildered by her they consider a living entity as god.  Brahmä, the knower of the Vedas, clearly denounces Sucha thought.  Accordingly he prays to the Lord in Brahma Saàhitä (5.53):

          "I adore the primeval Lord Govinda, by whose conferred power are maintained the manifested potencies, that are found to exist, of all virtues, all vices, the Vedas, the penances and all jivas, from Brahmä to the meanest insect."

          This Mäyä cannot face the Lord, however, just as darkness cannot face the Sun.  Mäyä is not magic, illusion, or something false it is a potency of the Lord. Maya has factual existence.  Sometimes the Lord's energies are likened to His wives.  In that sense Mäyä is also the Lord's wife, but her service is to entice the living entity.  The Lord is aware of this unchaste act and thus she feels shy to come into the presence of her Lord.  Moreover she knows Lord to be transcendental and herself to consist of the modes. Thus she is unable to face the Lord. This was discussed in Sections Thirty-one and Thirty-two of the Tattva

Sandarbha.

          The purpose of citing these two verses is to show that Lord and His qualities are not made of material modes. Indeed Mäyä cannot even come close to the Lord. In comparison to Lord's opulence all her opulence is just like the glow of a glow worm in front of the sun.

          In the last five Texts Çréla Jéva Gosvämé has established that:

a) The Lord has unlimited inherent attributes.

b) All His potencies are eternal.

c) Mäyä, the external potency, does not influence the Lord.

d) Brahman, Paramätma, and Bhagavän all are transcendental to Mäyä.

e) Time has no influence on the internal potencies of the Lord.

f) Even great demigods like Varuëa and Brahmä are also servants of the Lord who is completely free from Mäyä.

In the following text he begins explaining that Lord's body is part of His essential nature.