Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.7.27
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Vṛndāvana, September 24, 1976
Sa eva, that ādi-puruṣa, that original person, He comes down, descends in this material world. Jīva-lokasya. This is called jīva-loka. This material world is called jīva-loka because here ātmā, the soul, is covered, conditioned. We have given the meaning, jīva-loka means when the ātmā is conditioned. That is called jīva-loka. There is no freedom. Just like there are so many planets. You have got airplane, but because you have got airplane you cannot go there. Conditioned. You cannot go. They're trying, one, two planets, moon planet or Mars planet. No. You cannot go there, what to speak of other planets. If you want to go there then you have to qualify yourself. Not that because you have got a machine, you can go there. No. That is not possible. Therefore conditioned. Conditioned means you have to fulfill the condition. Just like from here if I want to go to America, then I have to fulfill the condition: the visa condition, the passport condition, the health condition, the custom condition—so many conditions. You cannot go immediately. Or nobody can come from there also. In every respect we are conditioned. Every respect. This body is conditioned. You cannot enjoy this body unconditionally. No. That is not possible. You have to change. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā [Bg. 2.13]. The body has to be changed. A baby has to be changed to become a boy. A boy has to be changed to become a young man. A young man has to be changed to an old man. You cannot stop that. Therefore it is called jīva-loka, conditioned. Every one of us is conditioned. An animal is conditioned. He cannot... There are so many animals in the jungles. They are conditioned. They cannot come in the city or in the town. We are conditioned. We cannot go to the jungle. Conditioned. Every step there is condition.
So that is our bondage. We are mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūtaḥ [Bg. 15.7]. We are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. Why you are conditioned? The condition is because māyā-mohita-cetasaḥ. Māyā-mohita. They are bewildered by māyā. Māyā means "what is not." Mā-yā. So because we are under the clutches of māyā, this material world, therefore we have been conditioned. And what is that māyā? That māyā is forgetfulness of our relationship with God. That is māyā. Kṛṣṇa-bahirmukha hanā bhoga vānchā kare. This jīva, when we forget Kṛṣṇa, our relationship with Kṛṣṇa... What is that relationship? Caitanya Mahāprabhu says jīvera svarūpa haya nitya-kṛṣṇa-dāsa [Cc. Madhya 20.108-109]. That is our relationship. We are eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa. When we forget this, and we want to be master of all I survey... "I am the monarch of all I survey." I think, "I shall become independent and I shall enjoy. I shall improve my economic condition, and I shall be very happy." This is called māyā-mohita-cetasaḥ. He'll never be. Because he is conditioned. You cannot improve. That is not possible. That is called destiny. So the Western peoples, they say, "Why should we..." [break] ...any animal, take. You cannot improve the condition. Suppose the pig, he is conditioned to live in a very filthy place and eat stool, urine. You cannot improve that condition. By philanthropic mentality, if you want to improve his condition, not to live in filthy place, not to eat stool, if you try to give them halavā instead of stool, they cannot. That is not possible. This is called conditioned.