- That only God is real, all else is unreal. Thinking this way is discrimination. ‘Real’ means eternal, and ‘unreal’ means transient.
- Live in the world like an ant. In the world is both the True (nitya; the absolute; the eternal) and the transitory, all mixed up, just as sugar is mixed with sand. Be an ant and take only the sugar.
- Water and milk are mixed together, and so are spiritual joy and worldly pleasures. Like a swan, you must take only the milk and leave the water.
- Be like the waterfowl. When water touches its body, it flutters its wings and shakes it off. Or become like a mud fish. It lives in mud, but look at its body: it is clean and shines brightly.
- In the world (gol-mal) there is indeed a mixture of truth (mal) and make-believe (gol). Discard the make-believe and take the truth.
- The Absolute is the identical substance from which you derive the concept of the individual soul and the world. The phenomenal must be traced to that very Being, the Absolute must be traced.
Absolute
- Shakti cannot be thought of apart from Brahman, nor can Brahman be thought of apart from Shakti. Nitya (the Absolute) and lila (the relative phenomenal world) cannot be thought of apart from each other.
- The Absolute belongs to the same Being as the phenomenal world, and the phenomenal belongs to the same as the Absolute.
- It is very difficult to understand that He is both limitless and limited. The Absolute belongs to the same Being as the phenomenal world.
Phenomenal
- There is a way out, yet the fish do not escape. The silkworm dies in its own secretions. This world is unreal, it is impermanent.
- If you live in the world after knowing Him, the world is no longer ephemeral.