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That which is not found at the beginning or at the end but is manifest only in the interval, the middle period, cannot be really Real. It is mitthya, not Sathya. The Cosmos did not exist before it emerged, nor can it exist after it is submerged, that is to say, after Pralaya. What is evident in between can only be apparent Truth, temporary and limited Truth. It cannot be the unchanging Truth.

Man has to explore along these lines the value and validity of every object in the universe. The body, for example, was not there before birth and it is not here after death. Like a pot made of clay, it exists as pot with that form and name for some time and later resumes its clay nature. The 'pot' is but clay with a form and a name added to it by artificial means. Whatever the objects, everything in the Universe is inexorably subject to the impact of Time and it has to face death and destruction. The tree and the soil, the house and the body, the King and the Kingdom - each has to suffer the same consummation. Man ignores the means of becoming aware of the immortal in him. He is enamoured of the knowledge that is concerned with the phenomenal world. Those who yield to this facile temptation are like the ones who desert the garden of Heaven and rush into the jungle of poisonous vegetation. They turn away from the original, (the bimba), the Atma. They are fascinated by the image, (the prathi-bimba), the visible, the observable phenomena (the drsya). By this attitude, they are only proclaiming themselves as ignoramuses, not as knowers or seekers of Truth.

Man should know that not even an iota of genuine happiness is derivable from the 'three worlds', the three 'divisions of time' and the 'three levels of consciousness in daily life' (wakefulness, dream, sleep). Only the foolish among men seek to satisfy themselves from the limited counterfeit happiness through worldly activities. The wise know better. Those who by-pass the lush bunches of sweet grapes and run towards bushes of thorn are 'camels.' They cannot be classified under any other species. Next