त्रिभिर्गुणमयैर्भावैरेभिः सर्वमिदं जगत्।मोहितं नाभिजानाति मामेभ्यः परमव्ययम्॥
tribhir guṇa-mayair bhāvair ebhiḥ sarvam idaṃ jagatmohitaṃ nābhijānāti māmebhyaḥ param avyayam
Word by word
The verse says
The whole world is fooled by these three states and does not recognise me, who am beyond them and do not wear out.
In plain words
Not some people. The whole world.
The three settings are not a curtain hanging in front of the view. They are the eyes you are looking with.
Which is why the mistake is so hard to catch. From inside, it never looks like a mistake.
Where you've felt this · in relationships
You are in a foul mood on a Tuesday, and while you are in it there is no such thing as a foul mood. There is only a world that has turned annoying — the traffic, the queue, your friend on the phone and the slow way she tells a story. By Thursday you can say: I was in a mood on Tuesday. From inside, it does not feel like weather. It feels like the truth.
Going deeper
Delusion in this book is not believing false things. It is not noticing what you are looking through.
The three settings colour everything before you get the chance to judge it. In a driven state other people look like obstacles. In a heavy state the same people look like too much effort. You never experience yourself choosing either view. You experience a world that simply happens to be arranged that way.
The word avyayam sits at the end of the line — not wearing out, not shifting with the settings. What is being missed is exactly the thing that does not move.
The use of this is modest and real. When the world looks uniformly bleak, the uniformity is the clue. Nothing in a life is uniform. If everything has gone the same colour at once, the colour is coming from the lens.