Nitāi: "This false ego is characterized as the doer, as an instrument and as an effect. It is further characterized as serene, active or dull according to how it is influenced by the modes of goodness, passion and ignorance."
Prabhupāda:
- kartṛtvaṁ karaṇatvaṁ ca
- kāryatvaṁ ceti lakṣaṇam
- śānta-ghora-vimūḍhatvam
- iti vā syād ahaṅkṛteḥ
- (SB 3.26.26)
So last night we discussed Saṅkarṣaṇa. Saṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna, Aniruddha. Vāsudeva, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna, Aniruddha. Four expansion are there for taking charge of four kinds of different activities. So this false ego and the material world, "I am this body," they are also divided into three, śānta, ghora, and mūḍhatvam, according to the modes of material nature. Śānta means sober, serene. Persons who are in the modes of goodness, for them, this material world is manifest in the matter of its constituency. And those who are in modes of goodness, they can see things as they are. And the ghora, those who are in the modes of passion, they are unnecessarily going on, making plan and full of activities without any aim of life. And mūḍhatvam, that is like animal, do not know what is the aim of life, what for he is working, what is the value of life, nothing of the sort.
So this false ego, "I am this material body. I belong to this material world, I belong to this community, sect, or nation," so many, they are all based on ahaṅkāra. Ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate (BG 3.27). Actually, every one of us who are in this material world, they are, we are all under the full control of this illusory energy and working differently according to the influence of the different modes of material nature. I am not real kartā. Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi (BG 3.27). Guṇaiḥ karmāṇi. I am under the influence of different guṇas, and still, falsely, I am thinking that "I am the doer. I have got the capacity of acting. And the effect, whatever I have produced, it is due to my labor." This is called illusion, moha. Mohaḥ ayam ahaṁ mameti (SB 5.5.8). This conception of life is moha. Moha, delusion or illusion, just like a person in feverish convulsion is lying unconscious, thinking something else. This is our position. Moho 'yam. So our real business is how to get out of this moha.