The supreme consciousness is different from the consciousness of the living entity
in this way: the Supreme Lord says that when He descends into the material world,
His consciousness is not materially affected. If He had been contaminated by contact
with matter, He could not have spoken Bhagavad-gita. However, we living entities
are contaminated by the material world. The Bhagavad-gita teaches that we must
purify our activities in order to draw our consciousness back from that material
entanglement. This purification of activity is called bhakti, or devo- tional service.
This means that, although one’s activities appear to be ordinary, they are actually
purified. One may appear to work like an ordinary man, but the activities of a
devotee of the Lord are not contaminated by the three modes.

When our consciousness is contaminated by matter, this is called our conditioned
state. The false ego is the belief that one is the product of this matter. One who is
absorbed in this bodily conception, as Arjuna was, must get free from it. This is a
preliminary for one who wants liberation. Freedom from this material consciousness
is called mukti. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam, also, mukti is used to mean liberation
from this material concept and return to pure consciousness. The whole aim of
Bhagavad-gita is to teach us to reach this state of pure consciousness. On the last
page of Bhagavad-gita, Krsna asks Arjuna if he is now in purified consciousness. This
implies action in accordance with the directions of the Lord.

So, consciousness is there, but because we are only parts, we tend to be affected by
the modes of Nature. That is the difference between the individual living entities
and the Supreme Lord. In contamination, consciousness says, “I am the Lord. I am
the enjoyer.” Every material being thinks this. Consciousness has two psychic
divisions: One says, “I am the creator,” and the other says, “I am the enjoyer.”
Actually, the Lord is the creator and the enjoyer. The entity cooperates like a part in
a machine. In the body, for example, there are hands, legs, eyes, etc. But these parts
are not the enjoyers. The stomach is the enjoyer. All the parts of the body are
engaged in satisfying the stomach. Everything should be given to the stomach. You
can become healthy throughout your entire body when the parts of the body
cooperate with the stomach. Similarly, the Lord is the enjoyer, and we living beings
have only to cooperate with Him. If the fingers try to enjoy the food, they are
unable. They must give the food to the stomach in order to receive the benefit of it.

The central figure in existence is the Supreme Lord. The entities, by cooperation,
can enjoy. If a master is satisfied, his servants are also satisfied, of course. The
entities have this tendency to create and enjoy because the Lord has it, and the
entities are His parts and parcels.
