'Ah, Nala,' Indra says, 'I am so pleased with your offering. I am so glad that you are so inclined to serve me. Could you do one thing for me?'
'Yes, yes! Whatever you desire!'
'Nala could you please go to Damayanti and tell her that I am desiring her to be my wife.'
And Nala said, 'But I myself am on the way to the svayamvara to meet Damayanti and to ask her for her hand.'
Indra said, 'you gave your word that you would do whatever I wanted. Then, are you going to break your word?'
So Nala went and Nala met Damayanti before the svayamvara and came as a messenger of Indra. And Damayanti looked at him and Damayanti was immediately attracted to him! And she looked at him and thought, 'foolish boy, what is wrong with you? Don't you see that you are meant for me?' and she said, 'no, you can tell Indra that I will not accept anyone else as my husband but Nala.' So Nala on the way back was again stopped by Indra, 'so, what did she say?' and Nala was totally honestly telling everything that happened. So Indra understood that it came from Damayanti and not from Nala. Then on the day of the svayamvara, not only Indra came but also Agni came and also Vayu came and they all were attracted to Damayanti and they all wanted Damayanti and therefore on the svayamvara, they all took the form of Nala and they all looked like Nala! So there were 4 Nala's! And Damayanti didn't which one of them was Nala and she stood there with the garland not knowing which one to garland! So then she prayed to the Supreme Lord, 'I pray that upon the strength of my chastity, that you may protect my chastity and that I may not garland the wrong man. So please guide me that I will garland the right one.' So she garlanded and in this way it was Nala. And all the other Nala's took their original, demigod forms. And they joined in the whole thing, they could see it was the will of the Lord and it was divine and they took in the mood of good spoors.
So Indra returned to the heavenly planets and everything was fine. Then, then Kali came and said, 'how can you tolerate? This is an insult to the celestials that an ordinary mortal, that just a mere human being dared to enter into competition with the devas. Totally disrespectful! Nala should have withdrawn! Damayanti all right; she's a woman, she might have had her emotions, but Nala should have observed the etiquette! And for breaking the etiquette, he must be taught a lesson! You please allow me, allow me to teach him a lesson…' Indra said, 'all right, tatastu, so be it!'
Then from that day on, Kali followed Nala around. Although it was not Kali Yuga yet, he had a license and he followed Nala around and when Nala was once neglectful in after using the bath, not washing his feet, Kali entered and Kali entered his consciousness and Kali was in the consciousness of Nala! And then Nala was also going through some pastime like Yudhisthira Maharaja- gambling match where he lost everything. And all along Nala thought that he was acting on his own accord and he was totally poor and he had nothing left. He had to leave his kingdom and went to the forest and Damayanti came and they were in the forest. And then Nala thought that, 'I can't offer Damayanti anything, I can't protect her, I'm useless…' and he just left Damayanti and he thought that that was a good decision and his own decision. But it is described in the Mahabharata that it was not his decision; that was the influence by Kali. And in this way, Kali possessed him and he made all kinds of ridiculous decisions but each time he thought that he was acting upon his own intelligence and this is how Kali works.
And thus, in this age, Kali is possessing everyone! It's not just that we are surrounded by the age of Kali and 'it is so bad, it is so bad, it is so bad, what are we going to do?' We are possessed by Kali and a further proof of that is found in Yudhisthira seeing the symptoms of the age of Kali and he saw sons were unobedient to their fathers, husbands and wives were fighting…so the mentality had changed. Kali had entered into their consciousness. So this is what is going on; we are possessed by Kali and all along we thought that it was us. And so many things we are doing being possessed by Kali. But by chanting the 16 syllables of the holy name the influence of Kali can be destroyed.
Therefore Kali in this way is acting like an agent of maya. Maya is ultimately controlling the totality of the material energy and is more powerful than Kali also. Kali is also subjugated to maya. He is not beyond. So in that way Kali is secondary to maya.
That's we say and do things and we say, 'it's me! It's really me! I have to do this, I feel compelled to do it because it's me!' It's not you, it's not us…No. Yes Aatish?
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