In plain words
The Satya that is the basis of the world is the Ātma. The Satya that is the basis of man, too, is the Ātma itself.
So long as this Ātma appears as different, it has been spoken of as mithyā. Mithyā means this: so long as we do not inquire, the world appears as Satya. Once we inquire, we find it untrue. That is, the form that blends the two, Satya and the untrue, is the principle of mithyā. That is, the world made of the real and the unreal is called mithyā. This mithyā is born of Māyā; as clouds appear in the sky, this Māyā keeps appearing in Brahman. The world is a Satya that exists. Its power keeps showing itself in many forms. This supreme principle has come to take shape under separate names: Sat, Cit and Ānanda. These three are not separate. These three are one alone.
In the same way the Māyā of the divine power, too, takes on the forms of the sattva, rajas and tamas guṇas. It takes on the forms called Jñāna-śakti, icchā-śakti and kriyā-śakti. Sattva guṇa itself we shape into Jñāna-śakti. Rajoguṇa itself we mistake for icchā-śakti; tamoguṇa itself we take to be kriyā-śakti. The Ātma is one and endless. Māyā is like a clean mirror. Māyā has the power to reflect within itself the object in front of it. When Māyā takes on the dominance of rajoguṇa, it takes the form of avidyā. The Ātma reflected in Māyā where pure sattva prevails is Īśvara. The Ātma reflected in avidyā, following the dominance of rajoguṇa, is the jīva. The Ātma reflected in tamas is matter. This appears to us in different forms only because of the differences of the upādhis; the Ātma is one alone. Here the principle that casts the reflection is the Ātma, not Māyā.
Here we must recognise that the principle of Māyā, seen in so many ways, is only the Ātma's principle of image and reflection, and that the root principle in both is one. Here the principle of the Ātma is the divine principle itself, pervading everywhere and showing itself as oneness in all things and in all beings as well. It is the very transformation of the principles of Prakṛti, Īśvara, jīva and Māyā.
Here we must inquire into one thing more. We have learned that Māyā is like a mirror. This mirror reflects the object in front of it. This reflection has no connection at all with the mirror's dirt or its warping. The guṇas and the modifications of Īśvara, jīva and Prakṛti are only the qualities of this mirror and not qualities of the divine principle. This is just as … turns into curd: all this is only the making of Māyā, only its modifications; they are not modifications of the Ātma. All creation, too, has come forth from God. So in a creation that has come forth from God there is nothing else at all that God could desire. That is why we must not think that God has a desire, or that there is anything in the world He desires. “Na me pārthāsti kartavyaṃ triṣulokeṣu kiñcana”: that is, creation is natural to God; He is the One who delights in His play. He is the one who gives the fruit of karma, so He is called the Giver of the fruit of karma. So neither Īśvara, nor the jīva, nor Prakṛti, nor karma, nor avidyā can come to know that.