Passage 17

In English

Though we know that the world is false, it is desirable that we recognise the truth even in this falsehood. Let us examine carefully whatever truth there is in it. Even in boyhood, we have all the qualities of old age latent and hidden. We do not find any basic changes though we may pass on from the state of adolescence to youth, to middle age and to old age. And the same body is present through all these stages of change from boyhood to old age. Nobody can identify exactly the point of transition when boyhood comes to an end and youth begins, when youth comes to an end and old age comes. The body does not undergo any death. The body remains and, within the same body, these changes come about. When we contemplate upon this, we verily find truth in falsehood, falsehood in truth, truth in truth and falsehood in falsehood.