In plain words
Dream and the subtle: these are all Māyā. Then the causal. This causal thing is a reflection. This reflection has no consciousness of any kind. A reflection has no form. It has no name. It has no happiness. It has no sorrow. Holding on to such a thing, what are we to experience? Look at the waking, and it is inert. Look at the subtle, and it is Māyā. Look at the causal, and it is a reflection. I have no relation with these three. What is beyond this is the great cause. That is the supreme principle. The Ātma in that supreme principle and the Ātma in this inert thing: the two are one. To recognise such oneness is Vairāgya, they said.
So Vairāgya is not our giving up and going away. To recognise the Satya that is in what is, that itself is Vairāgya. To make oneself free of rāga, that itself is Vairāgya. How much we have achieved! How much we have earned! How much we have enjoyed! Where have all these gone? Where are they? Why are we letting them go? What is the fruit that has come to us from it? When we make an enquiry of this kind, we come to recognise that these objects, or affairs, or persons are no more than figures on a screen. Things that come and go in between, they are like drifting clouds. You must try to recognise well this thing called the principle of the mind. When we take water in a pot and mix it into the ocean, we can never again take back the water of that pot. Once smoke has joined the sky, we cannot take it back again. Once we have eaten and digested an apple, that fruit is not to be had again. But the principle of Manas cannot be eaten. It cannot be mixed. It cannot be joined. No one can experience Manas. There is no power to hold it back. All men, all beings, must come under the sway of Manas, but no one can hold Manas back. Then why did they set down the restraint of Manas? It is not restraining it. To pay it no heed, that itself is restraining it. It cannot be controlled: who can hold the wind in his hand? In just the same way, who can restrain this principle of Manas, which is infinite in form? When we know the truth that Manas is made of resolve and doubt, the restraint of that Manas is simply to be rid of resolves. These resolves are all bound up with rāga. So long as there is rāga, Vairāgya will not come to us. But even that rāga we must keep somewhat under control. We have a car. Press the accelerator and it goes at speed. But we must keep in view the state of the road, its curves, the ups and downs, and use the accelerator only as much as is right. Where we live is the world. This world is full of jolts and jars. It is filled with many sorrows and joys. With this in view we must try to keep our Manas under control to some extent. Without an accelerator there is no driving.