त्रिभिर्गुणमयैर्भावैरेभि: सर्वमिदं जगत् |
मोहितं नाभिजानाति मामेभ्य: परमव्ययम् ||tribhir guṇa-mayair bhāvair ebhiḥ sarvamidaṁ jagat
mohitaṁ nābhijānāti māmebhyaḥ param avyayam- Gita 7.13
In the Gita, Shri Krishna says, “All the ordinary souls who are under the bondage of maya (illusion) look at everything through mayic (belonging to maya) colored glasses.”
Mayic colored glasses are of three colors — sattva (mode of goodness), rajas (mode of passion), and tamas (mode of ignorance). These are the three qualities of maya.
So for us, everything appears sāttvic, rājasic, or tāmasic, or some mixture of them. Even if we were to see Shri Kriishna — even if we had gained entrance to Nanda Baba (father of Krishna) and Yashoda Maya’s (mother of Krishna) home and we went and had darshan (Divine audience) of Shri Krishna in the cradle — we would have thought, “Oh yeah, just a baby boy.”
Because even Bhagwan (God), we would see through our mayic glasses — in other words, (through) our mayic eyes. Our senses are made of maya, so everything looks mayic to us, even if we come face to face with Shri Krishna.
Therefore, even when we are witnessing Shri Krishna’s leela (Divine play), sakshat (directly), right in front of us, even then we do not recognize that He is God. We do not recognize the Divinity of the leela. We do not experience the rasa (Divine bliss or nectar) of the leela.
