Our struggle for existence is to fight with the impositions of the material nature. So Krsna says that in this way fighting, you cannot get out of the clutches of maya

Expressions researched:
"our struggle for existence is to fight with the impositions of the material nature. So Krsna says that in this way fighting, you cannot get out of the clutches of maya"

General Lectures

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. 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.

Pandal Lecture -- Bombay, April 7, 1971:

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 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, or material nature. That is impossible. That is said by Kṛṣṇa Himself. It is not my statement. Kṛṣṇa says, daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). 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 actions or reactions 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."