In plain words
Names come only in keeping with the work one does. In the same way, on this stage of the drama of the world, names fitting the parts each has played and the merits each earned in former births keep coming to them there. Truly, all these are nothing but illusions; not one of them is real. The influence of the mind alone is the root cause of these states. If you know, ‘This is mere bhrama’, Brahman reveals Himself. Or if you think, ‘I myself am Brahman’, bhrama runs away.
To Reach the Place You Came From Is the Supreme Goal of Life
When you try to know yourself, your own tattva is surely understood. ‘To go back to where it was born is the nature of every living being.’ By the light of the sun all the water of the sea turns into vapour. When it turns into vapour, the salt taste of the sea is not in the vapour. There it turns sweet. That very vapour takes shape as clouds. When a cool wind blows on these clouds, raindrops fall. These raindrops join one with another and take shape as a little stream. All these little forms join and flow as a big river. Where does this big river go and join? It goes back and joins the sea. That is the purpose of life. That is to say, the supreme meaning of life. Another example. A potter went to a tank, brought back clay in a cart and heaped it in front of his house. When he dug that clay from the tank, a pit was formed there. When he heaped it in front of his house, it took the shape of a mound. The pit's clay is the mound's clay. The mound's clay is the pit's clay. You have to go down into the pit. You have to climb the mound. As he went on making pots day after day, the mound too kept growing smaller. The heap of clay wasted away. He made pots and refined them. If you pour water into that clay pot, it breaks. So he put them in the fire and refined them. Once they have been put in the fire and baked, if you pour in water, it stays. While it was raw, all the water poured in ran away below. The pot too would break. After it has been refined, water stays in that pot. We use it in many ways. But while you are bringing water from the well in that same pot, the hand slips and it falls down.