The Unseen Enemy
In ancient times once there was a war between demigods (devas) and demons (asuras). The asuras had taken shelter of a very powerful wizard known as Maya-danava. By his mystic powers, he had created three mystical residences in the sky, where the asuras took shelter and started fighting fiercely with their weapons. Due to the wizardry of Maya-danava, the asuras were able to use their weapons but they became invisible. Drawing an analogy, one can say that in life, some of the most dangerous enemies cannot be seen. We don’t even know whether they exist, and we may even consider they are our friends. That is the way our mind works.
Problems Arise Due to an Uncontrolled Mind
The Bhagavad Gita tells us that the mind becomes the best friend of a person who is successful in controlling it. But for a person who has failed to do so, it becomes his greatest enemy.
In fact, the mind is our only enemy. And see the nature of the rebellious mind—it is impelling people to commit sinful activities, dictating leaders to exterminate innocent people, inciting civilisations to manufacture massive nuclear bombs and finally to drop them on populated cities. The mind is even inciting pious people to commit sinful activities that bind them to miserable suffering. It can even delude a great yogi or practitioner of spirituality to divert them from the true path. And then they have to suffer like ordinary people.
The mind is powerful and has many weapons—lust, envy, pride, greed, anger and illusion. Illusion is the most powerful weapon in creation. It is due to the need of these weapons that all other forms of destruction and cruelty are surfacing. And yet we are not able to see the mind or these weapons that are so powerful.
Maya-danava is called by this name for a very symbolic purposes—he is Danava who is empowered by Maya. History tells us that many forts having big and formidable walls were built to make it difficult for the enemy to attack.
Similarly, asuras were also given a fort by Maya-danava. This fort was strong, formidable and could do anything even fly in the sky or become invisible. How do you defeat this? Normally soldiers have to come to the fort at attack, but here the entire fort filled with asuras will attack all of a sudden. Even the devatas could not withstand them. So the lesson of life is that whoever you are in this world, you will be attacked by visible or invisible enemies. The visible enemies are being induced and empowered by the invisible ones. All the problems in the entire cosmic manifestation come about due to the influence of uncontrolled mind succumbing to arrogance, pride, lust, anger, envy and greed. They cannot be seen, but they are the power of influence of destruction and suffering.
Seeing is Believing
We must learn to see through the eyes of God, but how can we do this? Krishna reveals the truth through the Sastra and the Holy Scripture. And, this is explained in practical ways through Gurus and Sadhus. Whoever you are, there will always be powers greater than you, even the devatas were once defeated and they took shelter of Lord Shiva who is always eager to help. Who is He? He is the expansion of Vishnu and has the powers to destroy the entire cosmic manifestation.
Importance of Taking Shelter
If you take shelter of Lord Krishna, even if you die, He (Krishna) is going to take the responsibility. It does not matter how you die, where you die and for what reason you die so long as you are taking His shelter.
Lord Krishna says, just remember Me and even at the time of death I will take you to My abode, have no doubt about this. When a devotee is in coma, he actually belongs to Lord Krishna who is going to take charge of his soul. External physical reasons are not really important.
Lord Krishna Protects His Devotees
So He (Krishna) took it upon Himself, how He does things just to make the story so sweet. He could have thrown some big fiery weapons like Sudarsan Chakra to dry up that nectar or send a massive avatar to drink it. However, He sent Lord Brahma, who took the form of a calf and Vishnu became the cow.
Isn’t this an amazing thing? In the middle of a war between asuras and demigods, a cow comes along with a calf to drink the nectar and they go away peacefully amidst the watchful eyes of asuras. This is the power of the illusory energy of the Lord.
Krishna has this yoga maya and this mahamaya. And even Maya-danava was empowered by this maya, the energy of the Lord. The asuras were so powerful that Lord Siva too could not defeat them. They had drunk the share.
So Lord Vishnu gives Lord Shiva a chariot, armour, a bow, shield arrows, and inspires him to fight. Knowing that Vishnu is taking interest to empower him, Lord Siva realised he is indestructible and he started shooting fiery arrows.
Maya-danava saw this calf and cow drinking all the nectar that he produced. He could have also used his power to make some more nectar to fill the other well, but he thought there is no use.
He could see that they are going to lose the battle and that the Lord would not help them in any way.
What remained for them to consider was—how shall they surrender and take shelter of the holy name?
The only way to find a solution to problems that we face in daily life is to surrender to Krishna.
The author is the spiritual leader of ISKCON