Due to this external energy (yayā), the jīva is illusioned (sammohita jīva). Although transcendental to the three modes of material nature, the jīva thinks of himself as a material product and thus undergoes the reactions of material miseries. This means that the present mode of thinking, feeling and willing is not natural for the living being. The present conditional state is due to the influence of the external energy, which means that the illusory energy takes the initiative while the Supreme Lord is aloof. The Lord does not desire that a living being be illusioned by external energy.
Due to this external energy (yayā), the jīva is illusioned (sammohita jīva). Although transcendental to the three modes of material nature, the jīva thinks of himself as a material product and thus undergoes the reactions of material miseries. This means that the present mode of thinking, feeling and willing is not natural for the living being. The present conditional state is due to the influence of the external energy, which means that the illusory energy takes the initiative while the Supreme Lord is aloof. The Lord does not desire that a living being be illusioned by external energy. The external energy is aware of this fact, but still she accepts a thankless task of keeping the soul under illusion. The Lord, however, descends from His kingdom upon the kingdom of illusory energy and personally gives relief to the conditioned soul in the form of Bhagavad gītā. Thus the souls are reclaimed both by the process of punishment by the external energy, and by the Lord Himself as the spiritual master within (as the Supersoul) and without (as scriptures, saints and guru).
The purpose of Vyāsa seeing māyā is to explain the disease first and then the prescription to the cure. The external energy is, however, under the control of the Lord as previously explained. Therefore, it is sheer imagination that the Supreme Lord being illusioned by māyā becomes a living being. Had the Lord and the living beings been the same, Vyāsa could have seen that, and Śuka would not have taken the trouble to describe the “illusory” pastimes of the Lord for one’s liberation. Both the Lord and the living beings are qualitatively one, and their eternal relation is transcendental.