Devanagari
एवं पराभिध्यानेन कर्तृत्वं प्रकृते: पुमान् ।
कर्मसु क्रियमाणेषु गुणैरात्मनि मन्यते ॥ ६ ॥
Verse text
evaṁ parābhidhyānena
kartṛtvaṁ prakṛteḥ pumān
karmasu kriyamāṇeṣu
guṇair ātmani manyate
Synonyms
evam
—
in this way
;
para
—
other
;
abhidhyānena
—
by identification
;
kartṛtvam
—
the performance of activities
;
prakṛteḥ
—
of the material nature
;
pumān
—
the living entity
;
karmasu kriyamāṇeṣu
—
while the activities are being performed
;
guṇaiḥ
—
by the three modes
;
ātmani
—
to himself
;
manyate
—
he considers .
Translation
Because of 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.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The jīva thinks himself the doer of activities which are done by the guṇas, by false identification with prakṛti.
Just as one imitates people who dance and sing, one identifies prakṛti as the body and the body as the self. By such identification (para abhidhyānena) one thinks oneself the doer of activities such as seeing which are done by the guṇas.
Because of the impossibility of identifying oneself without having a sense of “I,” identity as an śakty-aveśāvatāra of the Lord arises from a covering as well. However this is a special type of identity of “I.” Because that particular jīva is fixed in his pure svarūpa, it is not a cause of bondage. That should be understood in cases such as the Kumāras who identify themselves as “I” as āveśāvatāras.
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, for 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.