Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.40.23
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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aham mama iti
—
thinking 'I' and 'mine'
The two-word disease of saṁsāra. Gauḍīyas trace every karmic wandering to this pair: ahaṅkāra ('I am this body') and mamatā ('this is mine'). Bhakti cures it not by erasing the I but by re-aiming it: ahaṁ tava — I am Yours.
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asat-grāhaḥ
—
grasping at the unreal
Compound: asat (unreal) + grāha (grasping). Asat in Gauḍīya usage is not 'non-existent' but 'unstable, perishable'. The mistake is treating the perishable as one's permanent identity.
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māyayā
—
by Your illusory energy
Bhagavān's own śakti. Gauḍīyas insist māyā is His servant, not an independent power — and that's why she can be revoked the moment He wills it (Gītā 7.14: mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te).
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karma-vartmasu
—
on the paths of karma
Compound: karma (action/reaction) + vartman (road). Karma is not a moral system here but a road network — endless byways the jīva drives down looking for itself in passing scenery.
After praising the lord, Akrura laments who do not worship the Lord but instead follow the path of karma under the influence of maya (bhramyate).
Though you appear as various avatāras to deliver the world, people having the influence of great offenses reject bhakti to you, being bewildered by your māyā, and take to other paths. Akrūra laments that in this verse. O Lord you are endowed with all six powers which defeat māyā (bhagavān)! After praising Kṛṣṇa, he reveals his sorrow. Repeatedly they practice the path of karma, not taking to bhakti to you.
Though you appear as various avatāras to deliver the world, people having the influence of great offenses reject bhakti to you, being bewildered by your māyā, and take to other paths. Akrūra laments that in this verse. O merciful Lord (bhagavān)! You produce mercy. Or Lord with pastimes difficult to understand (bhagavān)! Though you are eager to deliver every by your form and pastimes, all jīvas (jīva-lokaḥ) are bewildered because you spread māyā to bewilder them. This is illustrated. They insist on thinking (grahaḥ) of their bodies as their self and their sons as their possessions because of lack of intelligence (asat) or because they are opposed to renunciation which is favorable to bhakti. They continually indulge in the path of karma, not bhakti to you.
Children play in a courtyard, certain that the toys and walls are theirs forever; they do not see that the courtyard belongs to a Person whose name they have forgotten. Bhagavān's māyā is exactly that forgetting — 'I' and 'my' fasten themselves to passing things and the karmic road begins to run beneath the feet of every jīva who has stopped looking up.
Bharata renounced his kingdom for sādhana, but in the forest he saved an orphaned deer-fawn and grew so attached he could think of nothing else. At death he thought of the deer — and was born a deer (SB 5.7–14).
Akrūra's verse 23 names this exactly: aham mama iti asat grāhaḥ — false grasping in the categories of 'I' and 'my.' Even a renunciant can be caught; the cure is not technique but Kṛṣṇa Himself.
My note
Source: vedabase.io