Because Mārkaṇḍeya's material mind had stopped functioning, the sage failed to notice that Lord Śiva and his wife, the controllers of the universe, had personally come to see him. Mārkaṇḍeya was unaware of either himself or the external world. Not only was Mārkaṇḍeya unaware of Śiva, but he was unaware of himself, in the sense of his identity as “I” and was unaware of the universe, identified as “mine.”