In plain words
Embodiments of Prema! Truly, believers must take it as their chief duty to recognise that sacred principle of the Ātma. However many births we take, however many karmas we perform, however many good deeds of every kind we do, if we cannot understand this true principle, the principle of the Ātma, all of it will be of no use. Truly, from the part that is matter, tamoguṇa, we have entered the middle place through rajoguṇa. That is why we have been born as men. With this in view we have said, “Of all creatures, a human birth is hard to win.” To come by this sacred birth is to have reached a higher level. From this higher level, the place of rajoguṇa, we must make some more effort towards the sāttvic place of Īśvara; that is the effort we have to make. But it is not sliding back down to tamoguṇa, the lowest place of all.
So the day we put down the hatreds, envies, Ahaṅkāras and cravings in us, that very day the animal nature in us too will wane a little. The day the animal nature in us perishes, that very day the humanness in us sets out on its journey to divinity. Through inquiry of this kind we must try to reach the place of the Ātma. By reading many books, arguing for and against and using cleverness of many kinds, we can never reach the place of the Ātma, however many births it takes. This is not a thing made of words. It is a reality bound up with the mind. We must shape the nature of the mind in a sāttvic way. This is the true spiritual path.
Embodiments of Prema! The bhajans we sing, the japa we do, the dhyāna we practise: these are not useless; they are good karmas. Along with karmas of this kind, it is most needed to join our mind to them as well. In every karma, too, we must keep inquiring into the feeling of the Ātma. We must do every karma with the resolve that it is an offering to Īśvara. We must know: ‘It is through my own qualities that divinity takes on a changed form; my qualities have no connection at all with its true shape.’ If we stand apart from divinity, truly it is the principle of Māyā in us that is its root cause; Māyā is only like clouds. These clouds only drift away; they do not stay fixed. When we hold our sight, our aim, steady and Satya, in a little while these clouds drift away and we can behold the light of the sun. The moment a cloud comes in the way of the shining sun, we must not lower our gaze. When we keep our gaze fixed in one-pointedness until it drifts away, in a few moments we can see the sun's orb again.
In the same way, today, the moment such clouds as many hardships, losses, sorrows and griefs come in the way of the principle of the Ātma called divinity, we turn our gaze away from divinity.