In English
Do not give room to unnecessary doubts
Nowadays students give room to unnecessary doubts. One boy came to me and said, "! has declared that is real and the world is illusory. But who is said to be real is not to be seen anywhere, while we are vividly experiencing the so-called illusory world in our daily lives with all the attendant gains and losses, joys and sorrows - that too not for one or two years but over a period of several years. So, how can we believe that the world is illusory?" To this I replied, "My dear boy! Don't waste your time in-thinking about such questions. Why do you worry yourself about the reality or unreality of and the world? You leave that question to them (i.e. to and the world). First of all, find out the truth about yourself. You may think that you are real. But that alone is considered as real which does not undergo any change during all the three periods of time viz., past, present and future. In the light of this criterion, since your body undergoes change from moment to moment, and also since it is liable to perish altogether at any time, it is considered illusory. The same is the case with the rest of the world." The youth of today argue that they do not undergo any change, forgetting the fact that their body is subject to change from time to time - birth, childhood, adolescence, adulthood (manhood), old age and death. Thus, everything in this world undergoes change from time to time and that is the reason why the world is declared to be illusory. did not say that the world is absolutely unreal. He called it illusory, because it is a mixture of reality and unreality, appearing at one time and disappearing at another time. However, students should understand that there is a substratum of reality underlying the illusory world. This can be illustrated by the silver plate which you see on My table. This plate can be converted into a cup tomorrow, or into a spoon the day after. But the substance behind these changing names or forms continues to be the changeless silver. Nevertheless the silver and the cup (or plate) cannot be separated from each other. Similarly, the changeless reality of is the substratum underlying the everchanging, illusory world.