Text 7]
Fundamental Principles of Material Nature
1071
—the living entity;  karmasu kriyamāṇeṣu —while the activities are being performed;  guṇaiḥ —by the three modes;  ātmani —to himself;  manyate —he considers.
TRANSLATION
Due to his forgetfulness, the transcendental living entity accepts the influence of material energy as his field of activities, and, thus actuated, he wrongly applies the activities to himself.
PURPORT
The forgetful living entity can be compared to a man who is under the influence of disease and has become mad, or to a man haunted by ghosts who acts without control and yet thinks himself to be in control. Under the influence of material nature, the conditioned soul becomes absorbed in material consciousness. In this consciousness, whatever is done under the influence of the material energy is accepted by the conditioned soul as self-actuated. Actually, the soul in his pure state of existence should be in  Kṛṣṇa  consciousness. When a person is not acting in  Kṛṣṇa  consciousness he is understood to be acting in material consciousness. Consciousness cannot be killed because the symptom of the living entity is consciousness. The material consciousness simply has to be purified. One becomes liberated by accepting  Kṛṣṇa , or the Supreme Lord, as master and by changing the mode of consciousness from material consciousness to  Kṛṣṇa  consciousness.
TEXT 7
तदस्य संसृतिर्बन्धः पारतन्त्र्यं च तत्कृतम् । मवत्यकर्तुरीशस्य साक्षिणो निर्वृतात्मनः ॥ ७ ॥
tad asya saṁsṛtir bandhaḥ pāra-tantryaṁ ca tat-kṛtam bhavaty akartur īśasya sākṣiṇo nirvṛtātmanaḥ
tat —from the misconception;  asya —of the conditioned soul;  saṁsṛtiḥ —conditioned life;  bandhaḥ —bondage;  pāra-tantryam —dependence;  ca —and;  tat-kṛtam —made by that;  bhavati —is;  akartuḥ —of the non-doer;  īśasya —independent;  sākṣiṇaḥ —the witness;  nirvṛta-ātmanaḥ —joyful by nature.