108
Śrī-Caitanya-caritāmṛta
the sun in a mirror or on water appears to be the sun but is not. Similarly, the material world is but a reflection of the spiritual world. Although it appears to be factual, it is not; it is only a temporary reflection, whereas the spiritual world is a factual reality. The material world, with its gross and subtle forms, is merely a reflection of the spiritual world.
The living entity is not a product of the material energy; he is spiritual energy, but in contact with matter he forgets his identity. Thus the living entity identifies himself with matter and enthusiastically engages in material activities in the guises of a technologist, scientist, philosopher, etc. He does not know that he is not at all a material product but is spiritual. His real identity thus being lost, he struggles very hard in the material world, and the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement or Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement tries to revive his original consciousness. His activities in manufacturing big skyscrapers are evidence of intelligence, but this kind of intelligence is not at all advanced. One should know that his only real concern is how to get free from material contact, for by absorbing his mind in material activities he takes material bodies again and again, and although he falsely claims to be very intelligent, in material consciousness he is not at all intelligent. When we speak about the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, which is meant to make people intelligent, the conditioned living entity therefore misunderstands it. He is so engrossed in the material concept of life that he does not think that there can be any activities which are actually based on intelligence beyond the construction of skyscrapers and big roads and the manufacturing of cars. This is proof of  māyayāpahṛta-jñāna , or loss of all intelligence due to the influence of  māyā . When a living entity is freed from such misconceptions, he is called liberated. When one is actually liberated he no longer identifies with the material world. The symptom of  mukti  (liberation) is that one engages in spiritual activities instead of falsely engaging in material activities.
Transcendental loving devotional service is the spiritual activity of the spirit soul. Māyāvādī philosophers confuse such spiritual activity with material activity, but  Bhagavad-gītā  confirms:
māṁ ca yo'vyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena sevate sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate
(Bg. 14.26)
One who engages in the spiritual activities of unalloyed devotional service ( avyabhicāriṇī-bhakti ) is immediately elevated to the transcendental platform, and he is to be considered  brahma-bhūta , which indicates that he is no longer in the material world but in the spiritual world. Devotional service is enlightenment or awakening. When the living entity perfectly performs spiritual activities under the direction of the spiritual master, he becomes perfect in knowledge and understands that he is not God but a servant of God. As explained by Caitanya Mahāprabhu,  jīvera 'svarūpa' haya—kṛṣṇera 'nitya-dāsa' : the real identity of the living entity is that he is an eternal servant of the Supreme (Cc.  Madhya  20.108). As long as one does not come to this conclusion, he must be in ignorance. This is also confirmed by the Lord in  Bhagavad-gītā  (Bg. 7.19).  Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante jñānavān māṁ prapadyate : “After many births of struggling for existence and cultivating knowl-