and oyster shell

Less intelligent persons who cannot understand the doctrine of by-products cannot grasp how this cosmic manifestation and the living entity are simultaneously one and different from the Absolute Truth. Without understanding this truth, if, out of unnecessary fear, one concludes that this cosmic manifestation and the living entity are false, by putting forward the example of mistaking a rope for a snake, as Sankaracharya does, or mistaking the oyster shell for gold, surely that sort of argument is simply cheating. The examples of mistaking a rope for a snake and the oyster shell for gold, mentioned in the Mandukya Upanishad, have their different applications, and can be understood as follows: the living entity in his original constitution is pure spirit. And when a human being identifies himself with this material body, that is a case of accepting the rope as a snake, or the oyster shell as gold. The doctrine of transformation of state is accepted when one thing is mistaken for another. Actually, the body is not the living entity; and to accept the body as the living entity is the doctrine of transformation of state. Every conditioned soul is undoubtedly contaminated by this doctrine of transformation of state.    (More...)