In plain words
So the Veda has gone on to affirm again that though the guṇas are not in Him, He is in the guṇas too. So, when you want to prove the truth that He is everywhere, you can prove that He is everywhere only when He is in the guṇas too; but when you think He is not in the guṇa, ‘everywhere’ becomes Asatya. The guṇas are made things. Nothing so made is in God. So, of man, who has the guṇas: imitation is human, creation is divine. The one who is the Creator of all things is divine; but the one who is with the guṇas lives in imitation. These people, watching those, and those, watching these, may change some forms and names in many ways; this is with guṇas, that is free of guṇas. But, being in the guṇas Himself and having no guṇa of His own: we must consider an example. From clay the potter can make pots and other such forms. But there is clay through the whole of the vessel, while in the clay there are no pots. These pots are made things and nothing more; in the natural course of creation they do not come ready-formed as pots in the clay. So, just as the truth that there are no pots in the clay, but there is clay in the pot, stands as a pattern for us, in the same way the truth that there are no guṇas in God, but He is in the guṇas, has been proved to us. This very thing Śaṅkara said in another place, in another setting, as ‘Brahmasatyaṃ jagat midhya’. In another setting he said, ‘Sarvaṃ viṣṇumayaṃ jagat’. Seizing on such words, these students: what is all this? Nothing but gas, words. At one time he keeps saying ‘Brahmasatyaṃ jagat midhya’; in another place he says ‘Sarvaṃ viṣṇumayaṃ jagat’. Both are Śaṅkara's own words, are they not? The two can never be brought together; it is like water and fire, which never go together. “If that is true, this is not true. If this is true, that is not true”: arguing back and forth like this goes on as well. But now we must consider the ideal in this: that one too is true, and this one too is true. The elders do not speak words that have no truth in them.