A POT OF WATER CAN BE POLLUTED
BUT THE OCEAN CANNOT

 
To say that the ocean experiences the illusion (bhas) of being a drop is to say that Infinite Intelligence is experiencing Itself as the false mind. Now, if a dog shits or piddles in the waters of the ocean, the ocean does not get polluted; but if the dog shits or piddles into a small pot of water, then that water gets dirtied, and begins to stink, and becomes foul.

"Water" is the same in both, but in the ocean it has no limit, whereas in the pot of water it is limited by the pot — which represents sanskaras. Thus the water in the pot experiences the illusion of "dropness."

If this limit imposed by the sanskaras were to be removed, however, the water that was in the pot would experience itself as the unlimited ocean; thereafter it would gain the knowledge that "I was the ocean originally, but because of sanskaras, I imagined myself to be a drop."