When the rope is seen in darkness, by mistake or ignorance, it appears as a serpent, hiding what it really is. When the truth is known the onlooker feels, “this is no serpent; it is a rope!”; the serpent instantly disappears, for it was mere imagination. Therefore our feeling or thinking creates the serpent and also destroys it! Remember this: “Assertion creates, negation destroys!” Both are mental processes which can be classified as thoughts. “We become what our thoughts are.” These thoughts, on the validity of the objective world and the value of the joys derivable from it, though emanating from ajnana (ignorance), shape us from within. To overcome illusion or ignorance, the following are extremely valuable and helpful: (1) attention towards adhyatmic gain (spiritual progress); (2) steady faith; (3) devotion and (4) the grace of God. Even if one of these four is absent, one cannot experience the highest Bliss of the Absolute.

- Sathya Sai Vahini, Ch 21: “The Inner Inquiry”.