Kṛṣṇa says, na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ (BG 7.15): "Those who are miscreants, those who are rascals, mūḍha, narādhama, lowest of the mankind, māyayāpahṛta-jñānā, and stolen of his knowledge by māyā, such persons, because they are asuras, demons, they do not surrender unto Me." So we have to take it from the statement of Kṛṣṇa that anyone who does not understand Kṛṣṇa, who does not surrender unto Kṛṣṇa, they are to be understood under these classification.
Then here is one commentation by a learned scholar and devotee, Baladeva Vidyābhūṣana. He said, nanu cettvām eva prapannā vimucyante, tarhi paṇḍitā api kecit kim iti tvāṁ na prapadyante. Now, if Kṛṣṇa has said simply by surrendering unto Him, mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te . . . our business is, in the human form of life, how to get out of the clutches or conditions of māyā. We are actually trying to do that. All the scientific improvement, material advancement of knowledge, means that we are trying to avoid the conditions imposed by material nature. That is actually we are doing. Why you have invented this electric fan? Call it that is material science improvement. Because in the excessive heat we are troubled. And wherefrom this excessive heat comes? It comes from the material nature.
Therefore our struggle for existence is to fight with the impositions of the material nature. So Kṛṣṇa says that in this way fighting, you cannot get out of the clutches of māyā. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). It is very difficult. You may have hundreds and thousands of electric fans, but still you will have to feel the effect of excessive heat. You cannot avoid it. Similarly, you may have hundreds or thousands of heating arrangements; still, you have to feel the effects of the, I mean to say, cooling effect of winter season. You cannot . . .
Mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ (BG 2.14). We have traveled all over the world. I have seen different climatic influence, how people are suffering. In the Western countries they are thinking that, "Indians are very happy because the country is very warm," and we are thinking that, "The Western people are very happy because the country is very cold." But nobody is happy; that is a fact—neither the Westerners nor the Easterners—because all of them under the grip of māyā. That is a fact.
So in this way you cannot escape the stringent laws of māyā, material nature. That is impossible. That is said, said by Kṛṣṇa Himself. It is not my statement. Kṛṣṇa says, daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā. You cannot escape. Suppose you are escaping by some arrangement, by heating arrangement, by cooling arrangement. But that does not mean by that process you will escape the actual laws of material nature. Just like we have got cold storage. We keep fruits and other things in the cold storage. It looks that it is keeping fresh, but the decomposition method is not stopped there. As soon as you take out from the cold storage, it is all rotten.
So you cannot escape the action or reaction of material nature by these methods. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says, daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). It is very difficult, duratyayā, most difficult task to get out of the, I mean to say, regulative principles of material nature. Then how it is possible? Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te: "Simply by surrendering unto Me one can do it."
So the idea is that . . . just like one man is suffering from some disease. The doctor is giving . . . physician is giving some medicine and some diet. So if we follow the directions of the physician and eat the diet prescribed by him, there is hope of curing the disease. This is one way. And another person who is suffering from disease but does not care for the physician's instruction or any medicine—he is going on—he is certainly destined to die, as you can understand.
Similarly, in this material world, both the devotees and nondevotees are there. The devotees, they are trying to be cured from this material disease, and the nondevotees, they do not care for it; they are therefore continuing suffering. We, we shall understand in this way that, this I mean . . . Baladeva Vidyābhūṣana questions that "If by surrendering unto Kṛṣṇa we can become out of the clutches of māyā, why the paṇḍitas, why the learned scholars, scientists and philosophers do not do that?"
So he says that tatrāha na mām iti, duṣṭaś ca te kṛtinaḥ, śāstrārtha-kuśalāś ceti duṣkṛtinaḥ ku-paṇḍitās te māṁ na prapadyante śrutiś caivam āha. He is giving evidence from the Vedas how these rascals, they think of themselves as very learned. In the Vedas it is said, avidyāyām antare vartamānaḥ svayaṁ dhīraḥ paṇḍitaṁ manyamānaḥ (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.2.5): "There is avidyā, nescience, ignorance, within, but they are thinking that, 'I am very learned.' " That is our another disease. One disease is the troubles and conditions offered by the material nature.