Text 11]
Further Inquiries by Vidura
273
These activities are performed under the dictation of the illusory energy. The experience is compared to the experience of one's having his head cut off in a dream. The man whose head has been cut off also sees that his head has been cut off. If a person's head is severed he loses his power to see. Therefore if a man sees that his head has been cut off, it means that he thinks like that in hallucination. Similarly a living entity is eternally subordinate to the Supreme Lord, and he has this knowledge with him, but, artificially, he thinks that he is God himself and that although he is God he has lost his knowledge due to  māyā . This conception has no meaning, just as there is no meaning to seeing one's head being cut off. This is the process by which knowledge is covered. And because this artificial rebellious condition of the living entity gives him all troubles, it is to be understood that he should take to his normal life as a devotee of the Lord and be relieved from the misconception of being God. The so-called liberation of thinking oneself God is that last reaction of  avidyā  by which the living entity is entrapped. The conclusion is that a living entity deprived of eternal transcendental service to the Lord becomes illusioned in many ways. Even in his conditional life he is the eternal servant of the Lord. His servitude under the spell of illusory  māyā  is also a manifestation of his eternal condition of service. Because he has rebelled against the service of the Lord, he is therefore put in the service of the  māyā . He is still serving, but in a perverted manner. When he wants to get out of service under material bondage, he next desires to become one with the Lord. This is another illusion. The best course, therefore, is to surrender unto the Lord and thus get rid of the illusory  māyā  for good, as confirmed in  Bhagavad-gītā :
daivī hyeṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā  
 mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etām taranti te  (Bg. 7.14)
TEXT 11
यथा जले चन्द्रमसः कम्पादिस्तत्कृतो गुणः । 
  दृश्यतेऽसन्नपि द्रष्टुरात्मनो नात्मनो गुणः ॥११॥
yathā jale candramasaḥ  
 kampādis tat-kṛto guṇaḥ  
 dṛśyate' sann api draṣṭur  
 ātmano 'nātmano guṇaḥ
yathā —it is so;  jale —in the water;  candramasaḥ —of the moon;  kampādiḥ —quivering;  tat-kṛtaḥ —done by the water;  guṇaḥ —quality;  dṛśyate —