How our miseries are hallucinations

Life after life the living entity falsely tries to lord

it over material nature and become the lord of the material world, but

there is no tangible result. At last, when frustrated, he gives up his

material activities and tries to become one with the Lord and speculate

with much jugglery of words, but without success.

These activities are performed under the dictation of the illusory

energy. The experience is compared to the experience of one’s having his

head cut off in a dream. The man whose head has been cut off also sees

that his head has been cut off. If a person’s head is severed he loses

his power to see. Therefore if a man sees that his head has been cut off,

it means that he thinks like that in hallucination. Similarly a living

entity is eternally subordinate to the Supreme Lord, and he has this

knowledge with him, but, artificially, he thinks that he is God himself

and that although he is God he has lost his knowledge due to maya. This

conception has no meaning, just as there is no meaning to seeing one’s

head being cut off. This is the process by which knowledge is covered.

Srimad Bhagavatam 3.7.10 purport