188
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 3, Ch. 5]
ment like the other wives who are awake. The whole process is to enliven the sleeping conditioned souls to the real life of spiritual consciousness so that they may thus become as perfect as the ever-liberated souls in the Vaikuṇṭhalokas. Since the Lord is  sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha , He likes every part and parcel of His different potencies to take part in the blissful  rasa  because participation with the Lord in His eternal  rāsa-līlā  is the highest living condition, perfect in spiritual bliss and eternal knowledge.
TEXT 25
सा वा एतस्य संद्रष्टुः शक्तिः सदसदात्मिका । माया नाम महाभाग यथेदं निर्ममे विशुः ॥२५॥
sā vā etasya saṁdraṣṭuḥ śaktiḥ sad-asad-ātmikā māyā nāma mahābhāga yayedaṁ nirmame vibhuḥ
sā —that external energy;  vā —is either;  etasya —of the Lord;  saṁdraṣṭuḥ —of the perfect seer;  śaktiḥ —energy;  sat-asat-ātmikā —both as the cause and the effect;  māyā nāma —called by the name Māyā;  mahābhāga —O fortunate one;  yayā —by which;  idam —this material world;  nirmame —constructed;  vibhuḥ —the Almighty.
TRANSLATION
The Lord is the seer, and the external energy, which is seen, works both as cause and effect in the cosmic manifestation. O greatly fortunate Vidura, this external energy is known as māyā or illusion, and through her agency only is the entire material manifestation made possible.
PURPORT
The material nature, known as  māyā , is both the material and efficient cause of the cosmos, but in the background the Lord is the consciousness for all activities. As in the individual body the consciousness is the source of all energies of the body, so the supreme consciousness of the Lord is the source of all energies in material nature. This is confirmed in  Bhagavad-gītā  (9.10) as follows:
mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sacarācaram hetunānena kaunteya jagad viparivartate