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A dog without master.
Srila Prabhupada, Laguna Beach, July 26, 1975: Just like Krsna says, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam [Bg. 18.66] “Why you are unnecessarily running just like dog?” That street dog, we have seen just now on the beach, he has no master. So sometimes he is running this way, sometimes he is running that way, and he saw us. He knows—after all, he is a living being—that, “There are some Vaishnavas. So let me go with them if they will give us shelter.”
That is the purpose. He was coming. You were making, “Hut!” (laughter) But he wanted some master, because a dog without master, his position is very precarious. Without master… So we are all servant. Every one of us, we are all servants of maya. Maya means we are servant of our desires. We are servant of our different desires. Somebody is thinking, “I shall be happy in this way”; somebody is thinking, “I shall be happy in this way.” In this way we have got different desires, and we are servant of the desires. So servant of desire means just like the street dog. He is also desiring: “If these gentleman will accept me as his dog?” But he is going there, and he is driven away: “Hut! Hut!” He is going to some house, moving his tail, “My dear sir, will you give me some food?” “No, no. Go away.” We are also going also: “My dear sir, will you give me some service?” “No vacancy. Get out.”
This is our position. Hana mayara dasa kori nana abhilasa. Because we are constitutionally servant of God, but we have given up that service, we have now become the servant of maya. Therefore our life is frustrated, because you do not know, “What is my actual position.” Caitanya Mahaprabhu teaches, jivera svarupa haya nitya krsna dasa [Cc. Madhya 20.108-109]. Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s teaching, that, “Why you are going door to door like a dog: ‘Will you give me some food, give me some duty? I am prepared to serve you,’ and refusing, nana abhilasa, and desiring again and again, this way, that way?” But I do not know what is my real destination, how I shall be happy. That information is given by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, that, “You are suffering in this way for a permanent service to become happy. Why you are going here and there? You are servant of Krsna. Go there. Then you will be happy.”