जीवमाया गुणमायेति द्व्यात्मिकां मायाख्यशक्तिं विद्यात् । … निमित्तांशो जीवमाया । उपादानांशो गुणमायेति … । अविद्याविद्याख्यनिमित्तशक्ति-वृत्तिकत्वाज्जीव-विषयकत्वेन जीवमायात्वम् । … स्वीयतत्तद्गुणमयमहदाद्युपादानशक्तिवृत्तिकत्वाद्गुणमायात्वम् ।
jīva-māyā guṇa-māyeti dvy-ātmikāṁ māyākhya-śaktiṁ vidyāt | … nimittāṁśo jīva-māyā | upādānāṁśo guṇa-māyeti … | avidyā-vidyākhya-nimitta-śakti-vṛttikatvāj jīva-viṣayakatvena jīva-māyātvam | … svīya-tat-tad-guṇa-maya-mahad-ādy-upādāna-śakti-vṛttikatvād guṇa-māyātvam |
(Bhagavat Sandarbha: 18)
“Know the śakti [of Bhagavān] known as māyā to be of two aspects, viz., jīva-māyā and guṇa-māyā. … The instrumental aspect is [called] jīva-māyā, and the constituent aspect is [called] guṇa-māyā. … Jīva-māyā is such because it relates to the jīva on account of being a function of the potency of [māyā’s] instrumentality known as avidyā and vidyā; guṇa-māyā is such because of its being a function of the potency of [māyā‘s] constitution in the form of the mahat and so forth [i.e., in the form of all the subtle and gross aspects of the material universe’s constitution], which are constituted of its own respective guṇas [i.e., the three guṇas of sattva, rajas, and tamas].”
Commentary
Guṇa-māyā manifests all the constituents of māyā, i.e., the twenty-four elements of the material universe which become the means and objects of an embodied jīva’s perception. Jīva-māyā with its āvaraṇātmikā-vṛtti covers [i.e., inhibits] the jīva’s awareness of its own nature (svarūpa). Jīva-māyā with its vikṣepātmikā-vṛtti projects the jīva’s awareness towards māyā’s constituents. The collaboration of these elements in producing the illusion collectively known as māyā is comparable to the state of a person who is intoxicated, made to look at an object of lust, and then possessed by lust. Jīva-māyā does the intoxicating (with its āvaraṇātmikā-vṛtti) and projecting of the person’s attention (with its vikṣepātmikā-vṛtti), and guṇa-māyā manifests the object of lust for which the person becomes lustful.