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and the lame person collapses: a similar thing happens when the crutches of desires drop down. There are no real feet to walk on in the worldly life; they are artificial, wooden, made of desires. Desires falling down are the crutches falling down, and one suddenly finds oneself there -- from where he had never moved, where he has always been, in his basic nature. That is God, that is soul.
The end part of the sutra explains this:
DEATH IS ITS BODY, IT DWELLS WITHIN DEATH, BUT DEATH DOES NOT KNOW IT. IT IS THE INNERMOST SELF OF ALL THESE ELEMENTS, ITS SINS ARE ALL DESTROYED, AND IT IS THE ONE DIVINE GOD NARAYANA.
THE BODY, THE SENSES, ETCETERA, ARE ALL NON-SOUL MATTER, AND THE FEELING OF 'I-MYNESS' OVER THEM IS ADHYAS -- ILLUSION. THEREFORE, AN INTELLIGENT PERSON SHOULD DROP THIS ILLUSION THROUGH ALLEGIANCE TO BRAHMA -- THE ABSOLUTE REALITY.
The last thing is this sutra.... The race after desires is due to the fact that some dream always appears to be coming to its fulfillment somewhere in the far distance. A person looks in the desert, sees a lake of water near the horizon, runs for the water and on reaching there discovers that there is no water, that there is nothing but sand, and sand. But then the lake of water appears somewhere else. This is called an illusion.
When the sun's rays become hot and are reflected on sand, the vibrating rays create an illusion of ripples and waves. The ripples and waves are so continuous that a sort of vast, reflecting stretch of surface appears. If a tree is nearby, even that tree will be reflected in that surface, which acts like a mirror. When from a distance you see not only water but even the reflections of the fleeting clouds in water, how can you disbelieve? If there are also reflections of the rows of birds flying in the sky in the so-called water, and if the nearby trees are also getting reflected in water, your confidence regarding the existence of water is confirmed. Not only waves are seen, even the reflections in the waves are seen. But as you go nearer the reflections cease to appear, and on reaching the spot you find nothing but sand.
Adhyas, or illusion, means seeing what
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