So in the freedom of our will, we have the same dualism of appearance and truth--our self-will is only the appearance of freedom and love is the truth. When we try to make this appearance independent of truth, then our attempt brings misery and proves its own futility in the end. Everything has this dualism of _māyā_ and _satyam_, appearance and truth. Words are _māyā_ where they are merely sounds and finite, they are _satyam_ where they are ideas and infinite. Our self is _māyā_ where it is merely individual and finite, where it considers its separateness as absolute; it is _satyam_ where it recognises its essence in the universal and infinite, in the supreme self, in _paramātman_. This is what Christ means when he says, "Before Abraham was I am." This is the eternal _I am_ that speaks through the _I am_ that is in me. The individual _I am_ attains its perfect end when it realises its freedom of harmony in the infinite _I am_. Then is it _mukti_, its deliverance from the thraldom of _māyā_, of appearance, which springs from _avidyā_, from ignorance; its emancipation in _çāntam çivam advaitam_, in the perfect repose in truth, in the perfect activity in goodness, and in the perfect union in love.
Not only in our self but also in nature is there this separateness from God, which has been described as _māyā_ by our philosophers, because the separateness does not exist by itself, it does not limit God's infinity from outside. It is his own will that has imposed limits to itself, just as the chess-player restricts his will with regard to the moving of the chessmen. The player willingly enters into definite relations with each particular piece and realises the joy of his power by these very restrictions. It is not that he cannot move the chessmen just as he pleases, but if he does so then there can be no play. If God assumes his rôle of omnipotence, then his creation is at an end and his power loses all its meaning. For power to be a power must act within limits. God's water must be water, his earth can never be other than earth. The law that has made them water and earth is his own law by which he has separated the play from the player, for therein the joy of the player consists.