It is only when man discovers the ultimate unchanging base that he can derive permanent peace; until then, he too will have to swing and sway in the changing world, between joy and grief. Like Vivekananda and Nagamahashaya, people must be urged by the thirst to know the Creator behind Creation, the Person behind the puppets. Nagamahashaya started from the attitude of Dasoham (I am the servant) and made himself so small by shrinking his individuality that he was able to wriggle out of the shackles of delusion and escape into the Universal Eternal Truth. Vivekananda, on the other hand, started from the attitude of Soham (I am He); he made himself so vast and grand, that he broke the shackles and merged with the Supreme Sovereign Truth. When you have earned that jnana of identity of your reality with the Reality behind the Universe, maya (illusion) cannot affect you.

- Divine Discourse, Oct 04, 1965.