In plain words
Students! The teachings of God lie beyond the reach of speech and mind. It gives its meaning to man in a state that is beyond. To understand the words of God is very hard. This is possible only for those who have faith in God and have recognised God's power and capacity; but ordinary people are apt to take many meanings from names such as ‘Is it a new garment or an old garment?’ I am setting about making plain the meaning that is in it. Say you went on a trip to Kashmir one summer. When you went to Kashmir, you bought a length of woollen suit cloth. You brought it home and put it away in the cupboard. But for some time you forgot about it. Three or four years later, while you are setting things in order, you see that cloth. The moment you see it: ‘Oh! I bought this suit cloth in Kashmir five years ago,’ and at once you take it to the tailor. The tailor stitches trousers and a coat and gives them to you. Wearing both, one day you went to a wedding. Today the tailor stitched them and gave them to you. The very next day you went out in the trousers and coat. Somehow, as you bend down to sit for the meal, the trousers tear. The moment they tear, you say: ‘New trousers, and torn!’, and you are annoyed that new trousers could tear like that. But though the trousers are new indeed, stock old stock. In the same way, our bodily principle, this body, came to us new, as if a tailor had sewn it, putting a stitch to legs, arms and head. But life old stock. In the same way, we do recognise the lifespan of our body and the age of the body, but we cannot recognise the principle of the jīva. So God, speaking of the principle of the jīva, since this jīva is old indeed, used the names ‘old’ for this and ‘new’ for that, for the state in which, as if putting on a new garment, it is born into a divine, higher world. Then another student: Dharmarāja used the words ‘Aśvatthāmā hataḥ kuñjaraḥ’ and so told Droṇācārya, without cause, that his son called Aśvatthāmā had died; in this, Dharmarāja seems to have practised deceit, does he not; may one act like this? That was another question.