In plain words
This very Ajñāna covers man as Māyā. Just as rice covered by husk cannot be seen by us, just as this husk cannot stand without the rice, just as we are unable to see the water with moss lying over it, just as we are unable to see the sun covered by clouds, just as we are unable to see a sight with eyes covered by films, in just the same way man, covered by Ajñāna, is unable to know his own true form. That is why the Upaniṣads: ‘Uttiṣṭata, jāgrata. Prāpya varān nibodhata,’ they said. ‘My dear one! Because you are in the sleep called Ajñāna, you are unable to know your own true form.’ What must you do to the paddy for the rice to come to you? The rice did not come from somewhere apart. The rice is right there. But because the husk covers it, the rice is not seen. The sun does not come or go anywhere. Because the earth turns and because clouds cover it, the sun is not seen by us. When these clouds move away, the sun shines. In the same way, we cannot see a fire covered by ash. As soon as the ash is taken away, we can see the fire. None of these has sprung up new, just then. They were there all along. Even so, because they are covered by this film called Ajñāna, men cannot recognise the Satya. All these sights, all these objects, covered in this way, are merely impermanent and passing. “Yad dṛśyaṃ tan naśyam,” said the Veda. That is, everything that appears to us in the outer world must, at some time or other, sink into the womb of time!
Man needs the eye of Jñāna
Our eyes of skin see many forms and names in this world of the moving and the unmoving.