In plain words
— is there any sin greater than that? There is nothing at all disgraceful in admitting 'we are sinners.' Giving up the notion of yourselves as mere sheep, and giving up illusion, know that you are Atmas — beginningless and endless drops of immortal nectar. Material matter may be your servant, but you are not its servants.' These are the very words of the ṛṣis.
The ṛṣis are versed in the Vedas. How can those with no experience of such Bharatiya conceptions ever hope to understand them? Bharatiyas are fortunate souls who have prayed to God alone — as father, as mother, as guru, as friend, and as beloved — and drawn their strength from Him. Bharatiyas are those who worshipped Him as dearer than anything possessed in this world or the next, as their one and only beloved. How can ordinary people, who know nothing but sensory pleasure, ever grasp such a supreme truth? It is the ṛṣis' own argument that this very sensory nature is one of the reasons truth remains invisible to us, hidden from view.
Attachment to sensory enjoyment is what fashions all manner of doctrines. It is a screen standing between truth and ourselves — a major juncture, one might say, in our inquiry. Bharatiyas discovered that this very notion, developing actively over time, took shape as the marvellous Vedāntic doctrine of Māyā, and that this same screen is what Vedānta presents as the true explanation: that although truth has shone right before our eyes since time without beginning, it has remained hidden by this screen alone. Bharatiyas realized that no answer to this problem of ours could ever be found by searching the external world — however many ages one might spend searching it, the search remains utterly fruitless. What this calls for is direct experience, and in order to attain that supreme experience, Bharatiyas performed prolonged austerities, carried out their inquiry, and at last recognized the truth and proclaimed it to the world — so the scriptures of Bharat declare. Sensory desires, along with external desires for ritual acts and the like, have fashioned a screen between themselves and truth — and that screen