We are turned away from God.
Maharaj Ji gives a very illustrative analogy to make this point sink into our mind. He says,
“Think of something metal like this, this knob on the harmonium, or the shiny metal, the brass decorations in the shrine. This also has ansh (part) of prakash (light) in it, right? It’s shiny. So it has ansh of prakash. But if we turn off all the lights in here, and it’s dark, it’s night, will this shine? Will this shine to drive away the darkness?”
You’ll say, “This is ansh of prakash, the darkness should not be able to overtake it.”
No, but it’s away from its source. It is vimukh (alienated) from the maha prakash (great light). If the sun is shining on this, then this reflects. Then the darkness cannot overtake it. But this thing on its own cannot drive away the darkness.
So we are a tiny infinitesimal ansh of Shri Krishna’s jeev shakti (life force), and we are turned away from Him. If we were turned towards Him, maya could have no effect on us. But we are turned away from Him, so we’ve turned away from the light. We’ve turned towards the darkness. Therefore, the darkness has overpowered our inner light. So maya affects us and makes us forget who we are.
