Sanskrit
दैवी ह्येषा गुणमयी मम माया दुरत्यया । मामेव ये प्रपद्यन्ते मायामेतां तरन्ति ते ॥ १४ ॥
daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṃ taranti te
Translation
This divine illusion of Mine, caused by the qualities, is hard to pierce; they who come to Me, they cross over this illusion.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Maya gets its name here — the guna-born illusion of verse 13 is “divine” (daivī) and “hard to pierce” (duratyayā), not a flaw in the world but a built-in feature of it. The escape clause is narrow and immediate: not effort or understanding on its own, but coming to Krishna (mām eva ye prapadyante) — the same verb verse 19 uses for the rare mahatma’s culminating realization, and the same verb verse 20 uses, ironically, for those who surrender to lesser gods instead.