Durga

So these things are going on in the name of worshiping God. But that is not God worship. That is worshiping the fearful personified by the criminals. Just Durga... Kali is expansion of Durga. Just like Visnu is expansion of Krsna, similarly, Krsna's energy... Energy has also many expansion. Dasa maha-vidya. There are many expansion of Durga because she has to look after... Just like police department. Police department is there, but there are many officers in that police department. Similarly, Durga is the superintendent of police of this universe. Durga. Durga means the fort, durga. Ga means going, and dur means difficulty. So where you cannot go unless you accept so many difficulties, that is called durga, or fort. (More...)

So this universe, material world, is just like a durga. You cannot escape. Conditioned souls, you cannot escape. It is very difficult. Daivi hy esa guna-mayi duratyaya [Bg 7.14]. There are rules and regulation. Just like immigration department, security department-same thing. These are simply reflection of the original function of the supreme government. So this is... Just like prison house. You cannot escape so easily. If you try to escape, then you'll be again punished. So the bhih, the superintendent of police... The original superintendent is Durga. Durga means the protector of this durga, where you cannot escape. So she is also servant of Krsna. Therefore it is said, bhir api yad bibheti. This Durga is the fearful personified, but still, she cannot disobey Krsna's order. That is her position, dasi. Mam eva ye prapadyante mayam etam taranti te [Bg 7.14]. The bhih, the fearful feature of Krsna's potency, can only excuse you when you are surrendered to Krsna. Otherwise, you have to suffer these material pangs. We can understand how we are materially inconvenienced. We are... We have got such a nice house, and we are living on the third floor, so nicely decorated with marble. But the Durga's agent, the flies, they can go there and disturb you so much so that you would like to go away from this house. This is our position. So the bhih, the fearful personified agent, can punish you anywhere. You may think that "I am very comfortably situated," but that fearful agent can go anywhere. (More...)