Bhagavān has not, however, employed Māyā just to inflict miseries on the jīvas. She does that, but as mentioned earlier, her real purpose is to chasten the jīvas, to encourage them to turn to Bhagavān. The punishment she metes out serves three purposes: to administer reactions to the living beings for their unwholesome deeds, to deter them from further transgressions, and to impel them to seek a solution to this world of suffering. Since this punishment ultimately benefits the jīvas by uniting them with God, He generally does not choose to come between the jīva and Māyā.
So, misery is in the very nature of material existence, and its inevitability is meant to induce the jīvas to seek out their source, Bhagavān, and direct attention skillfully in His loving service. Only in this way can they gain liberation from Māyā’s clutches. In Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī confirms that this is the purpose of the creation:
Satyanarayana das babaji
The miseries of the material world are meant to prompt the jīvas to direct their consciousness toward their supreme source, and therefore suffering is recognized as bearing intrinsic value by the far-sighted. It is like a wake-up call for the sleeping self. In this sense, misery can be seen as an aspect of Bhagavān’s inconceivable mercy. Out of His causeless mercy, the Supreme Lord offers the entrapped jīvas access to spiritual knowledge through the Vedas. As Kaliyuga began and the jīvas all but lost their ability to comprehend spiritual knowledge, He further helped them by explaining the same message in the Itihāsas and Purāṇas. Finally, He revealed the essence of all knowledge in the form of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. So it can hardly be said that Bhagavān is indifferent to the plight of the jīvas.
Once a jīva takes advantage of Bhagavān’s arrangement for spiritual education and comes to the point of transcendental realization, he need not fear any punishment for his previous misdeeds, no matter how dreadful they were. As Śrī Kṛṣṇa says in Bhagavad Gītā:
yathaidhāṁsi samiddho’gnir bhasma-sāt kurute’rjuna
jñānāgniḥ sarva-karmāṇi bhasma-sāt kurute tathā
As a blazing fire turns firewood to ashes, O Arjuna, so does the fire of knowledge burn to ashes all reactions to material activities. (Gītā 4.37)
Thus, Bhagavān confirms that the jīvas’ punishment is meant not for inflicting suffering on them, but for awakening them to the knowledge that will lead them to freedom from all suffering and eternal life in the spiritual world.
Satyanarayana das babaji
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