To a spiritual seeker there is nothing more tragic than the forgetfulness of his own real nature. Inadvertence erupts the volcano of all other sorrows. Forgetting our real nature means non-apprehension of the Reality. Non-apprehension of Reality can create misapprehensions. Therefore, for a wise man there can never be any other tragedy greater than self-forgetfulness, as this can breed a chain of terrible consequences, each replete with insufferable agonies.

From self-forgetfulness starts delusion. From delusion comes the ego. This ego-sense leads to bondage, which breeds misery. When one forgets one's real nature, the infinite Brahman, one deludes oneself to be the limited ego. This delusion gives birth to the concept “I am.” Then one starts considering oneself to be one's own body, mind, and intellect. Naturally, conditioned thus by the body-mind-intellect, one comes to suffer limitations, bondages. In order to release oneself from it, one runs after the world of objects-emotions-thoughts; this exertion is sorrow-ridden.

In order to fulfill our desires, we strive; the desiring produces more sorrow and sweating agony. When the desires are fulfilled, there are even more worries-- the struggles required to preserve the objects gained. But the finite worldly objects must definitely perish in time, and therefore they produce more agony. If our desires are not fulfilled, certainly we are unhappy; if we get them, we want more. This is how the fall comes. For all this, the initial cause is Self-forgetfulness, the non-apprehension of Reality.

Forgetfulness of the essential divinity in us and our sense of holiness is death itself. In fact, this is real death. Living in forgetfulness of one's own divinity is spiritual death, because thereafter man can live only as a biped animal.