- yayā sammohito jīva
- ātmānaṁ tri-guṇātmakam
- paro 'pi manute 'narthaṁ
- tat-kṛtaṁ cābhipadyate
- (SB 1.7.5)
Vyāsadeva saw three things: the jīvātmā, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead and māyā. Māyā means what is not. Mā-yā. So that māyā begins from what is not. I am not this body, but I am thinking I am this body. This is māyā. I am not this body, that's a fact. But I am thinking, "I am this body." This is māyā. This is the beginning of māyā. This is the conception of the animals, less than human beings. Nowadays even a human being, he's also thinking like that. This is anartha. That is the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā lesson, to impress, "Arjuna, you are not this body." Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). So many ways. So this is anartha. To accept this body and in bodily relationship everything, ahaṁ mameti (SB 5.5.8), this is māyā. So this is anartha. Anartha means meaningless, no artha. Artha means meaning.
So if we want to stop this anartha, misconception of life, then we have to take to bhakti-yoga. It is explained in the next verse. But for the time being we are misled. The māyā, or the material nature, is misleading us. We are trying to adjust things according to the dictation of māyā, that we shall be able to stop our struggle for existence in this way and that way. That is not possible. Daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā (BG 7.14). If you make some plan . . . You can make plan, but that plan will never be successful. This is the . . . By false understanding we may make hundreds and thousands of plan to be happy in this material world. That is not possible. This is therefore called sammohito, "bewildered." Yayā sammohito jīva ātmānaṁ tri-guṇātmakam (SB 1.7.5). Ātmānam, himself, he is thinking that he is a material product, tri-guṇa—sattva, rajas, tamo-guṇa. Somebody is thinking, "I am very good man. I am very honest man. I am very qualified man." That is also false identification. And somebody is thinking that "I can do this. I can do that. I am so powerful. Who is equal to me?" Passion. That is also māyā's dictation. And somebody is lazy, sleeping, does not understand anything—tamo-guṇa. That is also tri-guṇātmakam, within this tri-dhāma. So within this material world, either the good man or the passionate man or the ignorant man, there may be some differences, guṇo-gata, but actually every one of them is entangled by māyā.