Spiritualেতামার ইИায় সব হয় মায়া-বশ েতামার ইИায় নাশ মায়ার পরশ (৬)
tomāra icchāya saba haya māyā-vaśa tomāra icchāya nāśa māyāra paraśa tomāra icchāya—according to Your desire; saba—everyone; haya— is; māyā-vaśa—controlled by illusion; tomāra icchāya—according to Your desire; nāśa—destruction; māyāra paraśa—the touch of illusion.
All living entities have come under the control of the illusory energy by Your will, and therefore, if You like, by Your will they can also be released from the clutches of illusion.
Commentary One might wrongly conclude that it is due to Kṛṣṇa’s will that we are suffering under the grip of illusion. Since everything is under Kṛṣṇa’s control and not even a blade of grass moves without His will, one may think that it is Kṛṣṇa who is responsible for our bondage in the material world. This is, of course, not the case. As Kṛṣṇa Himself says in Text 61 of Chapter 18 of the Bhagavad-gītā, He is seated in everyone’s heart as the Supersoul and directs the individual souls on their journey through the material world. But “directing” does not mean “dictating”; the Supersoul does not interfere with the small independence of the individual soul. In the purport to this Bhagavad-gītā verse, Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that when a living entity enters a new body—having left behind his old and useless one—he forgets everything connected to his previous body. Then the Supersoul, who accompanies the living entity, reminds him. The Lord acts as a witness to all of the soul’s activities—past, present, and future—and gives directions according to what the living entity deserves and desires. The living entity is never completely independent and, therefore, unless the soul is surrendered to the Supreme Soul and acts according to His direction, the individual is forced to act under the direction of the external energy, māyā. In the verse mentioned above from the Bhagavad-gītā, the word māyayā is translated as “under the spell of the material energy.” However, Māyā, or Durgā, is herself not independent. She acts like a shadow, moving according to the will of the Supreme Lord, as described in the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.44): chāyeva yasya bhuvanāni bibharti durgā icchānurūpam api yasya ca ceṣṭate sā. Her task is like that of a correctional officer who is entrusted with supervising, caring for, and chastising the inmates of a prison. The material world is compared to a prison, and just as in a society only those citizens who turn their backs on the state are imprisoned, only those souls who turn their backs on the Lord are placed within Durgā’s fortress. Consequently, the living entities are not put under the control of the illusory energy because of the whims of a sadistic, vengeful God, but because of their own actions. At the same time, because Durgā moves according to the will of the Supreme, it can be said, as Śrīla Prabhupāda does in this verse, that their fate depends on the will of the Lord. And because He is the supreme controller, Māyā will release a prisoner if ordered by the Lord. But this does not happen automatically or whimsically; it depends first and foremost on the attitude and actions of the individual soul. As soon as the soul surrenders, Kṛṣṇa will arrange its release, as He promises in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.14):
daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te
“This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.” Kṛṣṇa has given each soul free will, and therefore the jīva can choose to remain in the material world or to endeavor to escape it. When Kṛṣṇa, as the Supersoul in the heart, sees that a jīva desires to break free from the cycle of birth and death, He arranges circumstances that will foster that soul’s progress toward liberation. He puts the living entity in contact with His devotee, who teaches the seeker the process of surrender in devotional service. When Kṛṣṇa is pleased by the soul’s attitude of surrender, He orders Māyā to lift the veil of illusion, open the prison doors and release the soul. Therefore, Śrīla Prabhupāda says in this verse: tomāra icchāya— according to Your will. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura uses the same expression—tomāra icchāya—in the song Tumi Sarveśvareśvara from his songbook Śaraṇāgati. There he says, tomāra icchāya viśve sṛjana saṁhāra (“According to Your will, creation and destruction take place in the universe”), tomāra icchāya āchi nirbhara koriyā (“I have become solely dependent on Your will”), and bhakativinoda ati dīna akiñcana tomāra icchāya tā'r jīvana maraṇa (“Bhaktivinoda is most poor, and his pride has been leveled. Now in accordance with Your will he lives and dies”). This is the sentiment of a fully surrendered soul: to submit voluntarily to the will of the Lord and to depend without reservation on His causeless mercy.