This physical frame, built out of earth, fire, water, wind and ether, breaks up into its components, as built-up things do. Only ignorance will take it as Real; only the uneducated will attach value to it as permanent and eternal. Did this body exist before birth? Does it persist after death? No. It appears and disappears, with an interval of existence! Therefore, it has no absolute value; it is to be treated only as the cloud or the shadow.

As a matter of fact, this physical world is like the mango tree raised by the magician's wand, the product of the trickster known as Mind. Just as clay takes the form of pot and pan and plate and after an interval becomes once again clay, shapeless clay, so too, all this is the formless Sath - Chith - Ananda; the Niraakaara appearing with Aakaara for some time, on account of the delusion and ignorance of the Mind. Some things are useful, some are not, all because of this Name and Form.

All Forms are He; all are He. You too are He, above and beyond the Past, Present and Future. You are not this body which is tied up with time, and which is caught in the toils of Was, Is and Will. Be ever fixed in this attitude, dwell constantly in the thought that You are of the nature of Parabrahma; thus, you grow into a Jnani.

That mind is in bondage which craves for objects, for the company of men, and prefers this location or that. Attachment is bondage; non-attachment is Liberation, Moksha, Mukthi. To crave is to be imprisoned, to die. To withdraw the mind from all attachment is to be free, to live for ever.

"Mana eva Manushyaanaam Kaaranam bandha mokshayoh"; for men, the mind it is that causes bondage and grants liberation. The mind runs after an object, gets attached; the senses are alerted; an action results; the mind is rendered happy or unhappy; feeling ensues; fear enters; anger grows; affection develops. Thus, the bonds are thightened.

Fear, anger and affection are the closest comrades of Attachment, the comrades dearest to its heart! They are, all four, inseparable companions, moving always together. This is why even Pathanjali was forced to assert, "Attachment runs after happiness". And what is it that grants happiness? The fulfilment of desire, is it not? Desire leads to hatred of those who thwart it, fondness for those who feed it and to the inevitable wheel of opposites, of likes and dislikes; there is no escape from this for the Ignorant.