Bhakti-yoga directly stops the endless cycle of bewildered souls mistaking temporary bodies for eternal identity.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.7.5-6 — October 15, 1975, Johannesburg 751015SB-JOHANNESBURG [33:15 Minutes] SB-01.07.05-06_751015SB-JOHANNESBURG Prabhupāda: [prema-dvani] Thank you very much. [devotees offer obeisances] [00:50] yayā sammohito jīva ātmānaṁ tri-guṇātmakam paro 'pi manute 'narthaṁ tat-kṛtaṁ cābhipadyate [SB 1.7.5] So our present position is like this, that sammohita, bewildered, puzzled by māyā. We are eternal part and parcel of God, but on account of being enchanted by this material energy, or external energy of God, we have forgotten ourself, and we are now entangled. We have forgotten our goal of life.
Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ [SB 7.5.31]. The conditioned soul... Conditioned soul means the living being, the spirit soul who is conditioned by these laws of material nature. The laws of material nature is that you have to accept a certain type of body according to your propensity.
We create propensity. And Kṛṣṇa is so kind that He gives you the facility: "All right." Just like the tiger, he wants to suck blood. Or any man, if he wants to suck blood, then he will be given the facility of a tiger's body. If a person has no discrimination in eating—whatever available, he can eat—then he will be given facility of become a pig.
Up to stool, he can eat. So this is stated very clearly in the Bhagavad-gītā: īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā [Bg. 18.61] This is very significant. Yantrārūḍhāni māyayā. We are riding on a machine.
This body is a machine, but we are accepting machine as myself. This is called sammohita, "bewildered." If you are running on a car, if you think, "I am the car," as it is foolishness, similarly, I have got this yantra, machine, body, and it is running on on account of my presence, or I am driving, or Kṛṣṇa is giving me intelligence how to drive. But if I identify myself with this body, exactly like a foolish man—he is driving the car, and if he identifies himself with the car, he is a foolish man—so this is called sammohita. Yayā sammohito jīva.
Therefore the example, as I was citing yester..., last night, that we do not see the driver, and when the driver goes away, then we see that the car is not moving, and then I can understand, "Oh, the driver, my father or my son, has gone away." We sometimes cry, "My father has gone away" or "My son has gone away," but because we are sammohita, we actually never saw the father and the son. We accepted this coat-pant body as father and son. This is called sammoha, bewildered. Yayā sammohito jīva ātmānam: the spirit soul, ātmānaṁ tri-guṇātmakam... This body is tri-guṇātmakam.
The body is made according to the modes of material nature: kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya [Bg. 13.22]. Everything is very clearly explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. This is further development. Bhagavad-gītā...