Maya covers individual souls, not Supreme Brahman; ascend through Krishna consciousness to transcend illusion.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Lecture [partially recorded] — July 18, 1968, Montreal 680718LE-MONTREAL [16:08 Minutes] Prabhupāda: Cloud cannot cover the sun. There may be a cloud overcast in the sky for hundred miles, but even hundred miles, is it possible to cover the sun, hundred miles' cloud? The sun is itself so many hundreds of thousand times more than this earth. So māyā cannot cover the Supreme Brahman.
Māyā can cover the small particles Brahman. So we may become covered by māyā, or cloud, but the Supreme Brahman is never covered by māyā. That is the difference of opinion between Māyāvāda philosophy and Vaiṣṇava philosophy. The Māyāvāda philosophy says that the Supreme is covered. The Supreme cannot be covered.
Then how He becomes supreme? The covering becomes supreme. Oh, there are so many arguments and so many... But we follow that the cloud covers the small particles of sunshine. But sun remains as it is.
And we practically see also when we go by jet plane, we are over the cloud. There is no cloud upside. Sun is clear. In the lower status there is some cloud.
If you go thousands of miles up, we don't see any cloud; everything sunshine. Is there any question? Devotee (1): Is the cloud in our mind, or is the cloud in the sky also? Prabhupāda: Everything is in your mind. Yes. So you have to clear your mind. That's all.
Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam [Cc. Antya 20.12]. [”’Let there be all victory for the chanting of the holy name of Lord Kṛṣṇa, which can cleanse the mirror of the heart and stop the miseries of the blazing fire of material existence. That chanting is the waxing moon that spreads the white lotus of good fortune for all living entities. It is the life and soul of all education. The chanting of the holy name of Kṛṣṇa expands the blissful ocean of transcendental life. It gives a cooling effect to everyone and enables one to taste full nectar at every step.’] The whole process is to clear the mind. Yes? Devotee (2): Prabhupāda, even when the mind is cleared, does there not continue to be an objective temporary existence of material phenomena?
Even when the mind is cleared, the material world still exists for so long as the [indistinct] it dissolves, so there's still temporary existence. Prabhupāda: Yes. Devotee (2): So is that material principle which is manifested in beings is gone? Prabhupāda: No. Material principle is side by side. Just like the cloud is always there in the sky, but if you be above the cloud, then it is all right. So you have to become above the material principles.