Mayadevi Herself is Bound by Nitai's Love - Nitai-Bhakti

Mayadevi Herself is bound by Nitai's Love (by Nitaisevika Dasi)

Maya devi can no longer attack anyone who is engaged in Nitai bhajan, because she herself becomes senseless upon remembering His mercy.

Nitai’s mercy is such that even Maya devi goes mad and starts to cry remembering it. Because Nitai is the only Lord in this existence who has fulfilled her most cherished desire. Maya devi is ultimately a maha vaishnavi and she internally always desires to serve the Lord and His devotees favorably. But due to Gaur Krishna entrusting her with this task of taking the fallen souls away from Him, she has no scope to quench her true thirst of serving Him. She also desires to assist in spreading the Lord’s glories, but instead she is given the task of hiding the Lord. Like in Navadvipa Dham Mahatmya, Gauranga had ordered Maya to cover all the scriptures describing His glories. Although it pains her heart to do this, she is bound by the Lord’s orders. We must remember that she is a very obedient and loyal servant. She too desires to remain in the places where the Lord’s devotees gather and sing His glories, but “where there is Krishna, there can be no maya. Where there is the sun, there cannot be shadow”, so where is the scope? Hence she is deprived of this param ananda of being able to serve the Lord’s mission.

Nitai however is sooo merciful, that without her even asking, He engages her in the service of “spreading” the Lord’s glories. When has anyone ever heard of Maya devi “revealing” Gaur Krishna’s glories? Peculiar incident no? Oh but that is Nitai’s style, always a peculiar way of giving mercy.

Nitai was the one who ordered Maya devi to go and immediately remove her veil from where ever there is any mention of Gaurhari’s glories, and thus reveal it to the world.
Maya in this way is getting a chance to actually assist in the Lord’s mission.

(Navadvipa Dhama Mahatmya 1.18,20)

“Lord Nityananda ordered Maya out of His great mercy to lift her net covering the eyes of all souls after Gauranga’s disappearance. In this way He manifested Gauranga’s Name & pastimes in this material world within everyone’s heart.”

Nitai is also the only Lord who ordered her to remove the covering from the dhams. Nitai here is not only bestowing His mercy on the fallen souls, but He is also blessing Maya devi by granting her the opportunity to work in favor of devotional service.

Maya cries to Gauranga in Navadvipa Dham Mahatmya about her pain of not being able to directly serve Him. She had to perform intense sadhana before she could get darshan of the Lord and keep her prayer before Him. And then He finally grants her the boon of always remaining in Simantadvipa and taking part in Gaur lila (as Sita Thakurani and the women who was transformed by Haridas Thakur). But just see the mercy of Nitai, that even without asking He is fulfilling her desire. Maya devi did not have to perform any austerity, any penances, or any sadhana to please Nitai. Nitai causelessly blessed her with this service. Because Nitai is antaryami, He fulfills everyone’s desires without being asked. This includes the desires of every soul - no one is left out.

And indirectly if we analyze even Gauranga’s darshan to Parvati, we can see that Nitai’s mercy is present even there. How did she receive Gauranga’s darshan? By chanting His holy name. And who is that name emanating from? Gaur Nam is Nitai’s property. No one can chant it without His mercy. In fact the only reason Shankara (from whom Parvati received this name) is aware of its glories is because his aradhya dev is Bhagavan Sankarshan who incessantly sings Gaur’s glories.

Who is the one who gives everything to one who is chanting Gauranga’s name?

Sakala sambal, Nitai personally grants everythig to that person. Nitai does not have to directly reveal Himself, but all the fruits which are coming by chanting Gaur Nam is due to Nitai’s
favor on that soul.

What is another proof that Parvati got darshan of Gauranga only by Nitai’s mercy? The following verse explains it all:

“But if someone does not get Your mercy, then such a person will never achieve Lord Gaura even if he or she worships Lord Gauranga for a minimum of 100 lifetimes.”

In Navadvipa Dham Mahatmya it is described that Parvati got darshan of Gauranga in “svalpa kaale”, very short period of time. The only cause of this was because Nitaichand was pleased by her sincere worship of Gauranga and thus extended His mercy so that she can attain Gauranga. Without His mercy, attaining Gauranga is impossible.

And if we scrutinizingly analyze Gauranga’s benedictions, Parvati devi was blessed in the holy dhama of Mayapur. Navadvipa dham is the place where she finally achieved her manovanchit seva. Navadvipa dham is the manifestation of whose divine body? NITAI! It is mentioned by Bhaktivinoda Thakur how anyone who comes to Navadvipa and performs bhajan, all their desires are granted by Nitai Himself. This is why it takes such a less time. Because Nitai discards all the shortcomings and offenses in the bhajan.

“Even if one commits hundreds upon hundreds of offenses in Shri Navadvipa Dhaam, one will get easily delivered there if Lord Nityananda Prabhu is causelessly merciful to that person.”

Again we see only Nitai’s mercy acting in the background.

Because of Nitai’s genuinely humble nature, He veils Himself and puts His Master Gaurhari in the forefront. Nitai rejoices to see Gauranga being glorified. And if we notice in Navadvipa Dham Mahatmya, it is Nitai only who is revealing this confidential pastime of Simantadvipa to Jiva Goswami. Hmmmm

So due to whose mercy has Maya devi attained this durlabh Gaur prema for which she was hankering since time immemorial? Nitai is the only Lord who considered giving her this royal honorary award, otherwise she has always been neglected.

This is why Maya devi is so helpless in her love for Nitai, that she becomes stunned when someone glorifies Him. Instead of attacking that person, she in turn blesses them to spread His glories even more! This is why we see that generally there are so many obstacles in preaching, but when it comes to Nitai prachaar, everything happens rapidly and smoothly without any disturbance. This is because Maya devi is herself obliged to Nitai. And a second reason is that in His own worship, Nitai relieves Maya from her service of taking souls away. Because the main purpose of Nitai is to take us back! So finally Maya devi is relaxing from this painstaking service.

So if you want to fill up even Maya’s heart with joy, then the only way is Nitai prachar! This is the only time where instead of creating obstacles, she will fully assist you. This is the fastest way to cross bhava sagar. Devotees are usually scared of maya and stay away - but the glories of Nitai’s devotees is such that they can instantly befriend maya! Nitai bhakti kori jurao mayaro pran.

The question then may be posed of why it sometimes appears that in the beginning some of Nitai’s devotees also are being affected by Maya? The reason is that due to our fallen habits, which we have become acquainted to since countless lives, it becomes very difficult for us to totally give them up in the initial stage. So even though Maya devi sets us loose, we keep going back to her for more sense enjoyment.

Factually she is no longer holding onto us, we are holding onto her. It is actually beyond our control because we cannot overcome these tendencies by the dint of our own efforts. But there is no reason to worry because there is no danger. Nitai has strictly ordered Maya that whoever engages in His worship even a tiny bit, she must entrust them to Him completely. Nitai personally takes charge of such a devotee and cares for them like a newborn baby in His arms.

So as soon as the soul begins to turn away from Nitai and move towards Maya - Nitai comes sprinting after them and forcefully grabs them back. Although it may appear as if someone engaged in Nitai’s worship has fallen down, that is only superficial. Because factually, being ordered by Nitai - Maya devi no longer puts her influence on that jiva. It is like a snake biting without any poison. And it is very temporary, because even before we can fully fall down - Nitai picks us up. In the beginning we are obstinate ourselves to not leave sense enjoyment. Jane sune beesh khainu, we are trying drinking poison out of our own will. But Nitai is even more obstinate and determined than us to release us from this conditioning.

And ultimately Nitai bestows upon us so much mercy that this tendency to fall down is permanently diminished.

“When will Lord Nityananda show mercy upon me, when will I reject the world of maya?”

But this is an undeniable fact that Nitai’s worship is the strongest, safest, most reliable and most rapid way to release oneself from Maya’s clutches.