[paragraph continues] Vidya-Maya and Avidya-Maya both exist in this world. As there are knowledge (Jnana) and Devotion (Bhakti), so also there are lust and greed for wealth. Good and evil, virtue and vice, are to be found in this world of relativity; but Brahman is unaffected by them. They exist in relation to Jiva (individual ego), but cannot touch the Absolute Brahman.

[Brahman untouched by good and evil.] Brahman may be compared to the light of a lamp. As by the same light one may read the Holy Scriptures and another may forge a document, while the light remains unaffected by the good and evil deeds, so is the Absolute Brahman untouched by the good and evil of the world. He is like the Sun who shines equally upon the virtuous and the wicked.

If you ask, misery, sin, suffering, unhappiness,--whose are these? I should answer, they are for the Jiva. They do not affect the Brahman. Evil to Jiva is not evil to Brahman any more than the venom in the fangs of a snake is poison to the snake. Others may die of snake-bite, but as the poison does not hurt the snake, so indeed is the existence of sin and evil in relation to Jiva alone. Who can describe what the absolute Brahman is? Whatever

[Brahman indescribable.] can be uttered by the mouth has become defiled as it were, like the leavings of food. The Revealed Scriptures, Vedas, Tantras, Puranas and all Holy Books, have become defiled as it were, like leavings of food, for they have been uttered by human mouths. But there is one thing that is never defiled in this manner and that is the Absolute Brahman. No one has ever succeeded in describing the Absolute by words of mouth. Brahman is unspeakable, indescribable, unthinkable.

Vidyasagara, interrupting, said to his friends: This is a grand idea. To-day I have learned this truth, that the Brahman is the one substance that has never been defiled by the mouth.

Bhagavan: Yes, that is so.

[Parable of the Vedic father and his two sons.] A certain father had two sons. To instruct them in the knowledge of Brahman he sent them to an Acharya (preceptor). After a few years they returned home and saluted their father. The father was anxious to know how far they had learned about Brahman, so he asked his eldest son: "My dear son, you have studied all the Scriptures and philosophies, tell me what is Brahman like?" The eldest son then tried to describe

the Absolute Brahman by quoting various passages from the Vedas. The father kept silent.