In plain words
Recognise the truth well
Man today makes no effort to recognise this truth well. He believes the true to be untrue and the untrue to be true. An example: he hopes to eat and pass his time comfortably without doing any work at all. We must try to see how much untruth there is in this. How much untruth lies in hoping, “Without doing any karma I shall eat in comfort and enjoy happiness”! Is eating not karma? Is breathing the air not karma? Is walking not karma? Is speaking not karma? While doing karma, he deludes himself that he is doing no karma at all. What a strange picture this is! While performing karma, he imagines he is not performing it. This body cannot remain even for a moment without performing karma. The body is bound by karma, so it must do karma.
All that is seen is the form of God
“Seeing, the fool yet does not see.”
So it has been said. That is, though he sees God, experiences God and delights in God, he deludes himself: “I must see God, I must see God.” What is he but a fool? Is not everything he sees, everything he experiences, everything he enjoys, the form of God? Where is there anything separate called the form of God? Ānanda itself is the form of God. What is seen is itself the form of God. The world itself is the form of God. That is why: “seeing, the fool yet does not see.” In the same way, while performing karma he thinks, “I am not performing karma.” While seeing God, he deludes himself, “I must see God.” There are three kinds of cause for this. They are three states: mala, vikṣepa and āvaraṇa.
Human life, an anthill of doubts
Mala means the dust covering a mirror: it goes only when we wipe it, and does not go if we do not. In our pure heart, worldly principles made of the three guṇas have spread a covering. This goes only when we wipe it away with effort. But instead of wiping it, we are piling up that dirt even more. So the principle of the Ātma, shining as eternal truth, stays hidden from our sight.
Now, what is vikṣepa? It is that which is always moving. What is this moving? It is the nature of the guṇas and the influence of attachment and aversion, turning on the mind, and through it, doubt, doubt in everything. The whole of man's life is filled only with suspicions. Whatever he intends to do, ‘Will this happen or not? Can I do it or not?’: this suspicion surrounds him. What is the cause? The lack of complete faith is the cause of it. If there were complete faith, there would be no room for such doubts.