KSHAYA: The mind is drawn with immense force by all the unconscious impulses and instincts of passion and attachment towards the external world and its multitudinous attractions. It therefore experiences untold misery and might even get lost in its depths. This is the stage called Kshaya or decline.

The state of inertia into which one is driven by despair cannot be called Samadhi; or one might even indulge in day-dreaming in order to escape from present misery; or one might start building castles in the air. All this is due to attachment, to the temptations of the outer world. There is another type of attachment too, the attachment to the inner world ... the planning within oneself of various schemes to better oneself in the future as compared to the past. Both these form part of what is called Kshaya. The basis for both is the attraction of the outer world. Attachment brings about desire; desire leads to planning.

RASA-AASWAADANA: When Kshaya and Vikshepa are overcome, one attains the Savikalpananda, the Bliss of the Highest Subject-Object Contact. This stage is what is called Rasa-aaswaadanam or the Enjoyment of Bliss. Even this is not the Highest or the Supreme Bliss, which one does not attain or acquire, but simply IS, becomes aware of, so to say. The Rasa, or the sweetness of the Subject-Object Samadhi is a temptation one has to avoid, for it is only the second best. It is enough joy to act as a handicap. The joy is as great as that of a person who has just deposited a huge load he has been long carrying, or as that of a greedy person who has just killed a serpent guarding a vast treasure he wanted to grab. The killing of the serpent is Savikalpa Samadhi; the acquisition of the treasure, that is the Nirvikalpa Samadhi, the highest stage.

When the sun rises, darkness as well as the troubles arising from it disappear. Similarly, for those who have realised the Atma, there is no longer any bondage, nor the sorrow arising from the bondage. Delusion comes only to those who forget their bearings: egoism is the greatest factor in making people forget their very basic Truth. Once egoism enters man, he slips from the ideal and precipitates himself from the top of the stairs in quick falls from step to step, down to the very bottom floor. Egoism breeds schisms, hatreds and attachments. Through attachment and affection, and even envy and hatred, one plunges into activity and gets immersed in the world. This leads to embodiment in the physical frame and further egoism. In order to become free from the twin pulls of pleasure and pain, one must rid oneself of body-consciousness and keep clear of self-centred actions. This again involves the absence of attachment and hatred; desire is the enemy number one of Liberation, or Moksha. Desire binds one to the wheel of birth and death; it brings about endless worries and tribulations.