Passage 5

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In plain words

So only if we practise proper control of the senses at this age will they, in old age, stay in our hands like sheep that answer when called. So we must develop due attention to the control of the senses.

Students! With today, the month we appointed has come to its end. From tomorrow each of you will be on your way back to your own place. Do not keep this discipline, this śraddhā and these practices only for as long as you are here, leaving them behind at our Bṛndāvanam as you go; take them into the seat of your hearts, and wherever you go, regard these three, devotion, discipline, duty, as one form of the Trimūrti; wherever you go, put them into practice and make every fitting effort to pass them on to others. As I said the day before yesterday, just as we take some broken-down car to a workshop, have what is useless taken out there, fit proper parts and bring the car home in good condition, in the same way you came to our workshop called Bṛndāvanam as rattletrap cars, or as cars that had lost their parts. Here we have set all the parts neatly in order and given you a service. Only when these cars are taken home in proper running order can your parents, your companions and your friends see it and truly rejoice; but if you are like this within the time you are here, within a time of this kind, and when you reach home that same old habit is once more your companion at your side, even your parents will not be pleased. Having been here all this time, you will have wasted time, karma and the body as well. So I hope that you will keep the goal in the seat of your hearts and, wherever you go, spread and teach it in the form of practice. So, with this very purpose, that you should stand as examples, we kept you here a month, had many elders speak to you of each and every thing that makes your future secure, and filled your hearts.