माया

"This divine energy of mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is very difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto me can easily cross beyond it."

Maya is not an enemy to be defeated — it is the divine's own veil, and only the divine removes it.

"I am never manifest to the foolish and unintelligent. For them I am covered by my eternal creative power, maya, and the bewildered world does not know me, unborn and infallible."

The paradox: what is most real is most hidden — not by a curtain, but by ordinary assumption.

"Although I am unborn and my transcendental body never deteriorates, although I am the Lord of all living entities — I still appear in every millennium in my original transcendental form."

The divine participates in its own maya — this is a key insight into the nature of the illusion.

"Deluded by the three modes of material nature, the whole world does not know me, who am above the modes and inexhaustible."

Maya operates through the very faculties we use to seek liberation — attention, perception, reasoning.

"The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, and is directing the wanderings of all living beings, who are seated as on a machine, made of material energy."

The machine of maya — we believe we are its operators. The Gita says we are its passengers.