Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.23.41
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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māyā
—
the illusory potency
From √mā — 'to measure.' Bhagavān's energy that veils Him. Gauḍīya tattva: māyā is His śakti, not a competing principle (no dualism), but she does the work of concealment until He chooses to lift the veil.
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yoginām
—
for great mystics
Genitive plural of yogin. Even yogis fall to māyā — the verse names the highest possible exception and includes it. Bhakti's only insurance is Bhagavān's grace, not personal capacity.
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mohinī
—
is bewildering
Feminine of √muh — 'she who bewilders.' Māyā personified as a feminine power. The same name Viṣṇu took to enchant the asuras in the churning of the ocean — a doctrinal cross-reference for the chapter's readership.
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guravaḥ
—
the spiritual masters
From √gṛ. The very social role of brāhmaṇa — to be guru of society. The verse's irony: gurus of all classes were themselves bewildered about the highest interest.
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sva-arthe
—
about our own real interest
Compound: sva (own) + arthe (interest, locative). Echoes verse 26's sva-artha-darśinaḥ — they who do not see sva-artha. The terminology binds the brāhmaṇas' confession to Kṛṣṇa's earlier teaching.
"Though we are husbands or fathers-in-law and act as guru, the women have become successful and we have fallen in the blind well." That is expressed in this verse. "They possess a love for Krsna which is impossible for us to understand (duranta bhavam). Just see their prema directed towards Krsna (pasyata)." Ha indicates that the the women had symptoms of choked voice, shivering hairs standing on end and change of color. "But it is improper for women to show love to those other than their husbands." "Though the women should regard their husbands as guru, what can one say when the guru of the universe appears directly before them? This love for the guru of the universe immediately cut the bondange of death, attachment to husbands, sons and house. As we no longer see those attachments in them, they are our gurus." In this way the husbands began thinking of their wives as gurus, not as their wives.
What misfortune! We have all been bewildered by māyā. Certainly (nūnam) the māyā of the lord bewildered us, practicing jṣāna-yoga as an aṅga of karma (yoginām). They identify themselves as yogīs. Or, māyā bewilders yogīs what to speak of us, engaged in karma. We are superior (guravaḥ) to all men inquisitive about the three types of yoga. Śukadeva has already described them as having no intelligence but thinking themselves intelligent (verse 9). Or, we are the instructors of all men since it is said that brāhmaṇas are the gurus of all varṇas. We have been bewildered (muhyāma), O brāhmaṇas (he dvijāḥ). Or we brāhmaṇas have been bewildered (muhyāmahe). Ātmanepada form of the verb is poetic license.
Yogis who have walked through fire and slept on nails are still tripped by māyā — what hope did we, busy with grain-offerings, have? The verse is honest, not despairing: it locates the failure correctly and so opens the door of grace.
Viśvāmitra, after thousands of years of fierce tapas, was felled by a single look from Menakā — and the resulting daughter, Śakuntalā, became one of Sanskrit literature's great heroines.
The brāhmaṇas cite this principle without naming the case: yoginām api mohinī — māyā bewilders even yogis. The verse is the canonical Sanskrit acknowledgement that liberation cannot be earned, only received.
My note
Source: vedabase.io