Passage 17

In English

Punarapi Jananam Punarapi Maranam (Oh Lord! I am caught up in this cycle of birth and death time and again). Truth is like this screen and all pictures are illusion. The Upanishad says, Sarvam Vishnumayam Jagat (Vishnu pervades the entire universe). Truth is constantly associated with Maya or illusion. Man must endeavour to transcend Maya to establish himself in Divinity. But man today is beset with all types of illusions. These illusions are due to Moha. Moksha or liberation is attained when all the attachments are conquered. Moha Kshaya Eva Moksha (destruction of attachment is Moksha). Moksha is not something that descends from heaven; it is not something which emerges from the earth. According to scriptures, removal of the veil of ignorance is Moksha. Ignorance is the other name of Moha. It is based on three basic qualities known as Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. As long as one is entangled in any of these attributes, the principle of Divinity that is beyond all attributes cannot be realised. God is beyond all attributes; and hence called Nityanandam, Parama Sukhadam, Kevalam Jñanamurtim, Dvandvatitam, Gagana Sadṛsham, Tattvamasyaadi Lakshyam, Ekam, Nityam, Vimalam, Achalam, Sarvadhi Sakshibhutam, Bhavatitam, Trigunarahitam (God is the embodiment of eternal bliss, wisdom absolute, beyond the pair of opposites, expansive and pervasive like the sky, the goal indicated by the Mahavakya Tattvamasi, one without a second, eternal, pure, unchanging, witness of all functions of the intellect, beyond all mental conditions and the three attributes of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas).