Of what can man say, "This is permanent"? Yes, how can he ever believe that anything is permanent? Truly, when he sees from his birth all things changing around him, his experience itself undergoing various transformations, and the atmosphere in which he grows constantly being transformed, when he grows up in an environment that has no permanency, how can that belief arise? Observing all this, it can be declared without any fear of contradiction that this is an unreal world. For, if this is Real, how can it change? All that suffers change is unreal; reality alone is changeless, stable, permanent. The changeless, stable, permanent entity is the Atman alone; that alone is real, that alone is permanent. The Atman is the Form of the Lord, it is the Power of the Lord.
Man alone has the capacity, the credentials for the realisation of that Power, for earning that Shakti. It is indeed tragic that, even after achieving human birth, persons do not realise that eternal Reality, nor even make an attempt to understand It. If this chance is missed, when can they attempt it?
Why, they do not concern themselves with the very purpose for which they have come! Did they come only for living like all other animals or birds or insects... eating, wandering about, sleeping and seeking pleasure? If the answer is, 'No', then, for what else? Can we say that man is just another animal, like the rest? He has three things that they have not, the power to reason out, the power to renounce, and the power to decide on right and wrong. These are special powers in man; but, of what use are they, unless they are applied in actual practice? If they are used, then the name 'Man' is apt, otherwise the name 'animal' has to be used.
The three powers mentioned above should be applied not only in worldly matters by man, but, even in the investigation of the Ultimate Truth. Really speaking, if discrimination and renunciation and inquiry are carried out while passing through the joys and sorrows of life, the conviction is bound to dawn in a moment that all this is Unreal, that all this has no basis in Truth. When such knowledge dawns, man is certain to tread the path of religion and Sadhana and take up the inquiry that will lead him to the Truth. This is the task which Man must be engaged in.
