# Forgetfulness *On māyā and forgetfulness - how we forgot God and came to this material world* --- ### What Is Māyā? > Māyā is predominant means the forgetfulness of God is predominant. Māyā is not a ghost. Māyā is a condition of consciousness. That's all. When you forget God, or Kṛṣṇa, that is called māyā. And in the Bhagavad-gītā it is very nicely explained in the Seventh Chapter that daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā: "The influence of māyā is so strong that it is very difficult to surmount." Yes. Māyā is energy of God also. — [[spoken/1970/700103sb.la|Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.1.6, Los Angeles, 1970]] --- ### Material World Means Forgetfulness > What is that material world? Material world means forgetting Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is covered. Kṛṣṇa is aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu. But they have no Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Whole world, you analyze, there is no Kṛṣṇa consciousness, there is no God consciousness. Rather they are declining: "There is no God," "God is dead," "I am God," "You are..." Because they have no information, no information of. That is material world. That is the difference between material world and spiritual world. — [[spoken/1974/741214sb.bom|Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.26.2, Bombay, 1974]] --- ### Full Forgetfulness and Full Consciousness > Spiritual world means there is full consciousness of the existence of God, and material world means to full forgetfulness of God. This is the difference between material world and the spiritual world. So if you bring, in the material world also, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then it is spiritual world. — [[spoken/1974/741214sb.bom|Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.26.2, Bombay, 1974]] --- ### Mā-yā: "Not This" > In this material world, there is no happiness, but to counteract the agency of distress, we accept, "That is happiness." Just like I am in distressed condition, puzzled, I take some intoxicant. This is called happiness. I remain in the same condition. After my intoxication is over, I come back again into the same condition, but I am thinking I'm happy. This is called māyā. Māyā means... Mā means "not"; yā means "this." "You are thinking like this, but it is not this." — [[spoken/1970/700103sb.la|Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.1.6, Los Angeles, 1970]] --- ### We Cannot Remember Our Past Lives > As soon as you dream, you get a body, you forget this body, so how you can remember your past body? Dream also changes, just like this is also another dream. You are thinking that you are awakened, but so long you are conditioned by the modes of material nature, surely you are dreaming. This is another kind of dream. — [[spoken/1970/701231sb.sur|Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.1.49, Surat, 1970]] --- ### Covered by Māyā > The whole Bhagavad-gītā was explained by the Lord because Arjuna represented himself with bodily conception. The false consciousness is exhibited under the impression that "I am one of the product of this material nature." That is called false ego. The whole material activities... One who is absorbed in the thought of bodily conception. — [[spoken/1966/660219bg.ny|Bhagavad-gītā 4.24, New York, 1966]] --- ### Forgetfulness Brings Punishment > Because on account of material contamination our heart is unclean, we cannot see things as they are. But the chanting process will cleanse your heart, and then you will see everything in order. Then you will not say the animal has no soul. — [[spoken/1975/750302le.atl|Sunday Feast Lecture, Atlanta, 1975]] --- ### Everyone Wants to Become God > In this material world everyone is trying to become an imitation God. God is one. God cannot be two. But here the struggle for existence means that these, I mean to say, living entities who are put into this material world, every one of them is trying to become an imitation God. Therefore there is struggle. — [[spoken/1970/700103sb.la|Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.1.6, Los Angeles, 1970]] --- ### Evolution Through Many Lives > This human life is after many, many evolutionary process. We have forgotten that. So this life is meant for jñānam, ultimate knowledge. In the lower grade of life, there is jñānam, there is consciousness, there is knowledge. A mosquito bug, mosquito, knows where to bite. The knowledge is there. They will bite on the joints. But human civilization does not mean that scientifically you have to do this, do that, eating, sleeping, mating. — [[spoken/1974/741214sb.bom|Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.26.2, Bombay, 1974]] --- ### Kṛṣṇa Consciousness Ends Forgetfulness > So if you keep yourself always in the fire of Kṛṣṇa, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you are transferred to the spiritual world. Very nice example, this iron rod, red hot. You cannot use it for any other purpose. It is simply for burning. Similarly, you can become Kṛṣṇa-ized. If you become Kṛṣṇa conscious, spiritualized, the material activities will have no effect. It is dissolved. — [[spoken/1974/741214sb.bom|Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.26.2, Bombay, 1974]] --- *10 quotes from Śrīla Prabhupāda on māyā and forgetfulness of God* [[wiki/quotes|Back to Quotes]]