# Dependence and Independence ## 1. Does the Supreme Lord interfere with the living entity’s independence? The living entities are fragmental parts and parcels of the supreme conscious Lord. The qualities found in the vast ocean are also found in a single drop of ocean water, but in minute quantity. Thus the Lord is supremely independent and the minute spirit souls possess minute independence. The living entities are not created but are eternal. The living entities are not products of matter but are spiritual. The living entities’ independence is not imposed upon them but is their natural constitution. It is by the misuse of this constitutional independence that the living entities suffer. The Supreme Lord does not interfere with any entity’s independence because He does not kill the living entities’ spiritual characteristics. The Lord is an ocean of mercy. That is why He informs the living entities how to properly use or to misuse their independence. Only those who hear His instructions from the scriptures and worship Him, thus properly using their independence, attain perfection. ## 2. Should independence be renounced? Those who are independent are proud, and those willing to subordinate themselves are humble. If after taking shelter of devotional service we become proud, and if after worshiping the Lord we neglect to serve His devotees and thus commit offenses at their feet, we will find ourselves facing inconveniences and then becoming detached from the Lord’s service. This human form of life is not meant for misfortune. Rather, it is meant to attain auspiciousness. Why do we always forget this? Why do I forget that I am the most useless, insignificant wretch? To be tempted by Maya to become great or to enjoy is an insignificant and unnecessary occupation. If we really want to become humble, thus decreasing our hankering for greatness, then we should follow and associate with the Lord’s humble devotees, who are servants of the great. ## 3. What is actual independence? To try to become God is nondevotional. The desire to become independent in this world means to become the servant of others. Material independence is simply a covered form of dependence. Complete independence is obtained by becoming dependent on the Lord, who is full of eternality, knowledge, and bliss, and desiring only to serve Him. As long as the living entities hold the rope of Lord’s mercy they are known as His servants. Those who think themselves self-dependent or independent should know that they are actually dependent on others. Only those who depend on the Supreme Lord are truly independent. When we attain actual independence then the conception that we are eternally dependent on Śrī Hari becomes prominent. Any object that is a complete whole is transcendental. Service to or dependence on that transcendental Absolute Truth, Śrī Hari, is actual, joyful independence. Otherwise, the show of independence while identifying oneself as the doer or master brings only distress. It is nothing but subordination under Maya. ## 4. Why are we not able to depend fully on the Supreme Lord? We are infinitesimal spirit souls, and it is our nature to remain surrendered and to take shelter of the infinite Soul. Because we listen with so much dependence to mundane discussions and solutions in the external world, we are unable to depend on the Supreme Lord. Only a person who desires nothing from this world, who is akiñcana, and does not depend on objects visible in this world, can faithfully depend on the Lord. By hearing enlightening hari-kathā from the mouths of the ever-lively saintly persons and the scriptures, we can come to completely depend on the Supreme Lord. ## 5. Do the living entities have independent will? The living entity is infinitesimal and can therefore be covered by powerful Maya. When the living entities fall under Maya’s control, they become averse or indifferent to the Lord’s service. The living entities are minutely independent. With their independent will, they can either remain devotees or become nondevotees. Non-devotional existence is called the conditional state, and is based on aversion to the Lord’s service. Such entities who choose this path develop the desire to become God; an uncontrollable endeavor to become the master of Maya is found in such entities. Only by the pure devotee’s mercy does the propensity for serving the Lord awaken in the living entities, and thus they regain their original position. Properly situated, they no longer remain conditioned. Trying to subdue the living entities’ independence results in the development of mundane qualities. Consciousness and unconsciousness are not synonymous. Desire for material enjoyment covers the spiritual consciousness of the living entities and throws them into the material atmosphere. By the devotees’ mercy the living entities’ conditioned state based on their independent will is easily destroyed. Subordination to the devotees is the proper utilization of independence, and desire for sense gratification is its misuse. ## 6. Is it essential to become subordinate? An independent person cannot worship Hari or become a devotee. One’s benefit lies in following in the footsteps of one’s ācārya. People with independent natures maintain different opinions. If millions of gopīs have millions of opinions, then there will certainly be disturbances in their discharge of service to Kṛṣṇa. No one has the power to please Śrī Mādhava without subordinating themselves to the daughter of Vṛṣabhānu. The spiritual master is nondifferent from and an intimate associate of the daughter of Vṛṣabhānu. That is why it is important for a person desiring auspiciousness to take shelter of a bona fide spiritual master. There is no other way to achieve auspiciousness. ## 7. How did the dependent independent souls receive their independence? We are part and parcels of the fully independent Personality of Godhead, and therefore God’s qualities are present in us in minute quantity. Kṛṣṇa is fully independent. Therefore we also possess minute independence. In our independence, there are two kinds of aversion to the Lord, aversion in the form of desire for material enjoyment, and aversion in the form of renunciation of material enjoyment. For the independent souls, there are only two ways open; to walk the path of material enjoyment or to walk the path of devotional service. No one can remain neutral; everyone must choose one of these two paths. By constantly worshiping the Lord with love and devotion, one is not covered and thrown by the Lord’s illusory energy. But worship should be constant. If there is even a slight interruption in our attention, Maya will take advantage of the situation and cause us trouble. ## 8. Is the proper use or misuse of the living entities’ independence inspired by the Lord? If the Lord was inspiring the misuse of our independence, then the result would be service to the Lord, not forgetfulness of Him. ## 9. What is the fruit of service? It is one thing to sincerely take shelter of the Supreme Lord, and another to lead a whimsical life in the name of serving the Lord. Independence is not subordination, and subordination is not independence. Those who follow the path of śreyaḥ believe in subordinating themselves to the Lord, and those who follow the path of preyaḥ believe in their own independence. We can judge the value of a path by its result. The fruit of devotional service is progressive advancement on the path of devotion and the development of an intense desire for more and more service. Anything opposite to this is advancement toward material enjoyment. ## 10. Why do we lack the tendency to chant God’s name? Why do we wish to remain fallen in the well of material existence? We are spirit souls and as such have the freedom to choose whether to serve the Lord or remain averse. If we do not choose correctly, we will have to suffer the consequences. If we chant the Lord’s holy name with heart and soul, we will certainly attain His mercy. Spirit or consciousness can take initiative, but matter has no independence. The Lord is the proprietor of both matter and spirit. The spirit soul owns an invaluable jewel called independence, but there is a difference between the living entity’s independence and the independence of the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Lord is fully independent, while the living entity’s independence always depends on His will. The living entities can either use their independence properly or they can misuse it. If the Lord forced the living entities to act against their own free will, then their spiritual nature would be destroyed. That is why the Lord never interferes with their independence but rather tries to revive their natural propensities toward service. The spirit souls were not created; they are eternal. The Lord appears in this world in the form of His devotees, the spiritual master, and the śāstra to help the living entities awaken their pure, spiritual characteristics. This material world is not our eternal residence. Caitanya-caritāmṛta states: sādhu-śāstra-kṛpāya yadi kṛṣṇonmukha haya sei jīva nistare, māyā tāhāre chāḍaya If the conditioned soul becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious by the mercy of saintly persons who voluntarily preach scriptural injunctions and help him to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, the conditioned soul is liberated from the clutches of Maya, who gives him up. (Madhya 20.120) māyā-mugdha jīvera nāhi svataḥ kṛṣṇa-jñāna jīvere kṛpāya kailā kṛṣṇa veda-purāṇa ’śāstra-guru-ātma rūpe āpanāre jānāna ’kṛṣṇa mora prabhu, trātā jīvera haya jñāna The conditioned soul cannot revive his Kṛṣṇa consciousness by his own effort. But out of causeless mercy, Lord Kṛṣṇa compiled the Vedic literature and its supplements, the Purāṇas. The forgetful conditioned soul is educated by Kṛṣṇa through the Vedic literatures, the realized spiritual master, and the Supersoul. Through these, he can understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead as He is, and he can understand that Lord Kṛṣṇa is his eternal master and deliverer from the clutches of Maya. In this way, one can acquire real knowledge of his conditioned life and can come to understand how to attain liberation. (Madhya 20.122-123) ’nitya-bandha kṛṣṇa haite nitya-bahirmukha ’nitya-saṁsāra’ bhuñje narakādi duḥkha sei doṣe māyā-piśācī daṇḍa kare tāre ādhyātmikādi tāpa-traya tāre jāri’ māre kāma-krodhera dāsa haṣā tāra lāthi khāya bhramite bhramite yadi sādhu-vaidya pāya tāṅra upadeśa-mantre piśācī palāya kṛṣṇa-bhakti pāya tabe kṛṣṇa-nikaṭa yāya Apart from the ever-liberated devotees, there are the conditioned souls, who always turn away from the service of the Lord. They are perpetually conditioned in this material world, and are subjected to the material tribulations brought about by different bodily forms in hellish conditions. Due to his being opposed to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the conditioned soul is punished by the witch of the external energy, Maya. He is thus ready to suffer the threefold misery—miseries brought about by the body and mind, the inimical behavior of other living entities, and natural disturbances caused by the demigods. In this way the conditioned soul becomes the servant of lusty desires, and when these are not fulfilled, he becomes the servant of anger, and continues to be kicked by the external energy, Maya. Wandering and wandering throughout the universe, he may by chance get the association of a devotee physician, whose instructions and hymns make the witch of the external energy flee. The conditioned soul thus gets in touch with devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa, and in this way he can approach nearer and nearer to the Lord. (Madhya 22.12-15) ’kṛṣṇa-nitya-dāsa jīva tāhā bhuli’ gela ei doṣe māyā tāra galāya bāndhila tāte kṛṣṇa bhaje, kare gurura sevana māyā-jāla chuṭe, pāya kṛṣṇera caraṇa The living entity is bound around the neck by the chain of Maya, because he has forgotten that he is eternally a servant of Kṛṣṇa. If the conditioned soul engages in the service of the Lord and simultaneously carries out the orders of his spiritual master and serves him, he can get out of the clutches of Maya, and become eligible for shelter at Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet. (Madhya 22.24-25)