38 On the Way to Krgna

satatam kirtayanto mam
yatantas ca drdha-vratah

namasyantas ca mam bhaktya
nitya-yukta upasate

“O son of Prtha, those who are not deluded, the
great souls,-are under the protection of the divine
nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service
because they know Me as the Supreme Personality
of Godhead, original and inexhaustible. Always
chanting My glories, endeavoring with great determi-
nation, bowing down before Me, these great souls
perpetually worship Me with devotion.” (Bg.9.13-
14).

Who is the great soul, the mahatma? It is he who
isunder the influence of the superior energy. At pres-
ent we are under the influence of Krsna’s inferior
energy. As living entities, our position is marginal—
we can transfer ourselves to either of the two
energies. Krsna is fully independent, and because we
are part and parcel of Him we also have this quality
of independence. Therefore we have a choice as to
which energy we will function under. Because we are
ignorant of the superior nature, we have no alterna-
tive but to remain in the inferior nature.

Some philosophies propound that there is no na-
ture other than the one we are presently experiencing
and that the only solution to this is to nullify it and
become void. But we cannot be void because we are
living entities. It does not mean that we are finished
just because we change our bodies. Before we can get
out from the influence of material nature, we have
