What is the origin of conditioned existence?
Why does the Lord attribute consciousness to one individual being distinct from Himself and forgetfulness to another?
In truth, the Lord clearly desires that every distinct being be animated by pure consciousness, which consists in knowing itself to be a fragment of His person, and that it then engage in His service of love and devotion, for this is the natural and original position of the distinct soul, which each of us truly is.
But because this soul also enjoys partial independence, it may refuse to serve the Lord by wanting to enjoy the same independence as Him. Thus, all those who are not devoted to the Lord harbor the desire to equal the Lord in power, even though they are unable to achieve it.
It is therefore by the Lord's will that they are plunged into illusion. Just as a child wants to be king, the individual may desire to be God, and that is why the Lord places them in a dreamlike state where they believe themselves to be God.
Therefore, the original sinful desire is to want to be God, whereupon the Lord causes the individual to forget their real existence and thus dream of a utopian world where they would be, in a way, the Lord's equal. If a child cries because they want to play with the moon, their mother will give them a mirror in which they can contemplate the moon's reflection, thus calming the capricious child. Similarly, the Lord gives us, the capricious children that we are, this reflection which is the material world. The individual thus placed in illusion, the materialist, will try to dominate the material world, but will soon give up, frustrated, and wish to be One with the Lord.
But these two phases of conditioned existence correspond only to dreams, only to an illusion. It would be futile to try to trace the origin of this desire for domination, but let us understand that as soon as it manifests in the separate being, that being is immediately placed under the sway of the energy of illusion by the will of the Lord. This is why, in its illusion, the soul conditioned by matter dreams according to the notions of “I” and “mine.” A prisoner of its dream, the conditioned soul takes its material body for its true “self,” and believes itself to be the master and possessor of everything connected to the body. This vision remains nonetheless a dream that will continue life after life, and as long as it has not developed the pure consciousness of its true identity as an integral part of the Lord.
In its original state of pure consciousness, the separate being guards against falling prey to such a dream. It always remembers that it can in no way be the Lord, but remains His eternal servant, bound to Him by a purely spiritual love.
As soon as an individual being separate from God forgets its own natural position and seeks to become One with the Absolute, Krishna, God, the Supreme Person, its conditioned existence begins.