Text 9]
Further Inquiries by Vidura
271
covering up of pure consciousness and eternal bliss is due to  avidyā-karmā-saṁjñā , the energy which acts on the infinitesimal living entities who misuse their minute independence. According to  Viṣṇu Purāṇa ,  Bhagavad-gītā  and all other Vedic literatures, the living entities are generated from the  taṭasthā  energy of the Lord, and thus they are always the energy of the Lord and are not the energetic. The living entities are like the sun's rays. Although, as explained above, there is no qualitative difference between the sun and its rays, the sun's rays are sometimes overpowered by another energy of the sun, namely by clouds or by snowfall. Similarly, although the living entities are qualitatively one with the superior energy of the Lord, they have the tendency to be overpowered by the inferior material energy. In the Vedic hymns it is said that the living entities are like the sparks of a fire. The sparks of fire also are fire, but the burning potency of the sparks is different from that of the original fire. When the sparks fly out of touch with the original fire, they come under the influence of a non-fiery atmosphere; thus they maintain the potency to be again one with the fire as sparks, but not as the original fire. The sparks can everlastingly remain within the original fire as its parts and parcels, but the moment the sparks become separated from the original fire, their misfortunes and miseries begin. The clear conclusion is that the Supreme Lord, who is the original fire, is never overpowered, but the infinitesimal sparks of the fire can become overpowered by the illusory effect of  māyā . It is a most ludicrous argument to say that the Supreme Lord is overpowered by His own material energy. The Lord is the master of the material energy, but the living entities are in the conditioned state, controlled by the material energy. That is the version of  Bhagavad-gītā . The froggish philosophers who put forward the argument that the Supreme Lord is overpowered by the material mode of goodness are themselves illusioned by the same material energy, although they think of themselves as liberated souls. They support their arguments by a false and laborious jugglery of words, which is a gift of the same illusory energy of the Lord. But the poor froggish philosophers, due to a false sense of knowledge, cannot understand the situation.
In the Sixth Canto, Ninth Chapter, Thirty-fourth verse of the  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  it is stated:
duravabodha iva tavāyaṁ vihārayogo yadaśaraṇo'śarīra idam anavekṣitāsmat samavāya ātmanaivāvi kriyamāṇena saguṇam aguṇaḥ srjasi pāsiharasi.
“The demigods prayed to the Supreme Lord that although His activities are very difficult to understand, they can still be understood to some extent