Krishna remains hidden behind maya's curtain until foolish souls learn to hear and chant His names.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.8.19 — September 29, 1974, Māyāpur 740929SB-MAYAPUR [34:27 Minutes] SB-01.08.19_740929SB-MAYAPUR Nitāi: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [devotees repeat] [leads chanting of verse, etc.] māyā-javanikācchannam ajñādhokṣajam avyayam na lakṣyase mūḍha-dṛśā naṭo nāṭyadharo yathā [SB 1.8.19] [break] [02:16] Translation: "Being beyond the range of limited sense perception, the eternally irreproachable factor covered by the curtain of deluding energy, You are invisible to the foolish observer, exactly as an actor dressed as a player is not recognized." Prabhupāda: māyā-javanikācchannam ajñādhokṣajam avyayam na lakṣyase mūḍha-dṛśā naṭo nāṭyadharo yathā [SB 1.8.19] So one side is māyā-javanikācchannam. Māyā, this illusory energy, is covering with the curtain.
Just like we are seeing the Deity, but if there is a curtain, we cannot see. Similarly, there is a curtain which is illusory energy, māyā. Big, big scientists, they cannot see what is behind this material nature. They cannot understand.
Because the māyā, this wonderful material energy, is acting in such a big curtain, they cannot understand that beyond this there is something else. They cannot understand. Māyā-javanikā ācchannam. Illusory energy.
They are thinking this material energy working, that is everything—nothing beyond this. The whole world is covered. This is one side. And the other side: ajñā. Māyā-javanikācchannam ajñā...
These materialistic persons, they are ajñā, means they have no sufficient knowledge. Unless one develops the light of knowledge, sattva-guṇa... Sattva-guṇa is the light of knowledge. Rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa is darkness—ignorance and passion.
In this stage one cannot understand what is Kṛṣṇa, what is God. Ajñā. Rajas-tamo-bhāvāḥ [SB 1.2.19]. As we have discussed in Bhagavad..., Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, rajas-tamo-bhāvāḥ, those who are infected with the two kinds of material modes, means rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa, they are simply busy, kāma and lobha.
They are busy only... Those who are passionate, they are simply busy for sense gratification, and those who are in ignorance, in darkness, they have no eyes to see. So these two classes of men... Mostly people are infected with these two kinds of modes of material nature, rajas-tamas. The whole world.