Navadwip, India — Wednesday, February 4th
Just do it!
Since this is my last day in Navadwip (I leave for Calcutta later this morning), I visit the four mandirs here at the Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math to get the blessings of all the deities before I leave...
I begin at the Shiva mandir by Govinda kunda, where I first offer my obeisances to Lord Shiva's bull, Nandi, at the entrance at the top of the stairs. When I offer my dandavat pranams to Lord Shiva inside the temple, I start to recycle my prayer from 2003:
"O Lord Shiva, you are the master of maya. Please be pleased with me and protect me from the illusions of your consort..."
But in the middle of my petition, this verse from Bhagavad Gita (7:14) forcibly intrudes into my mind, interrupting me:
daivi hy esa guna-mayi / mama maya duratyaya
mam eva ye prapadyante / mayam etam taranti te
It's almost as though Lord Shiva is saying: "Hey, don't come here with that same old spiel! It's not going to work this time. Maya Devi is Krishna's divine energy (daivi mama maya). If you have any difficulty with her (duratyaya), you know what to do. Surrender to Krishna (mam eva ye prapadyante) and she won't be able to touch you (mayam etam taranti te). You know this, so stop wasting my time with this posturing. Now get out of here and go do what you have to do!"
Chastened, I slink off to the other mandirs, but I am too traumatized to do anything more than offer those deities the most perfunctory of obeisances...
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— February 4th, 2009.