Srimad-Bhagavatam: Canto 11 - Chapter 1 - Verse 7

Sanskrit:

त्वय्युद्धवाश्रयति यस्‍त्रिविधो विकारोमायान्तरापतति नाद्यपवर्गयोर्यत् ।जन्मादयोऽस्य यदमी तव तस्य किं स्यु-राद्यन्तयोर्यदसतोऽस्ति तदेव मध्ये ॥ ७ ॥

ITRANS:

tvayy uddhavāśrayati yas tri-vidho vikāromāyāntarāpatati nādy-apavargayor yatjanmādayo ’sya yad amī tava tasya kiṁ syurādy-antayor yad asato ’sti tad eva madhye

Translation:

My dear Uddhava, the material body and mind, composed of the three modes of material nature, attach themselves to you, but they are actually illusion, since they appear only at the present, having no original or ultimate existence. How is it possible, therefore, that the various stages of the body, namely birth, growth, reproduction, maintenance, dwindling and death, can have any relation to your eternal self? These phases relate only to the material body, which previously did not exist and ultimately will not exist. The body exists merely at the present moment.

Purport:

The example is given that a man walking in the forest may see a rope but consider it to be a snake. Such perception is māyā, or illusion, although the rope actually exists and a snake also exists in another place. Illusion thus refers to the false identification of one object with another. The material body exists briefly and then disappears. In the past the body did not exist, and in the future it will not exist; it enjoys a flickering, momentary existence in so-called present time. If we falsely identify ourselves as the material body or mind, we are creating an illusion. One who identifies himself as American, Russian, Chinese, Mexican, black or white, man or woman, communist or capitalist, and so on, accepting such designations as his permanent identity, is certainly in deep illusion. He can be compared to a sleeping man who sees himself acting in a different body while dreaming. In the previous verse Lord Kṛṣṇa told Uddhava that spiritual knowledge is the means of achieving the highest perfection, and now the Lord is explicitly describing such knowledge.