Passage 5

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In plain words

Giving no room at all to Ahaṅkāra, giving no occasion at all to envy and attachment, He handed on to ordinary people that Dharma of carrying out the duty of His humanity. Though He was an emperor, though He had nothing to do with any task, He stood as Arjuna's charioteer, did many kinds of work, and went on acting like an ordinary jīva who gave no room at all to Ahaṅkāra. Not only that: after the battle, washing the horses, putting salve wherever they were wounded in many ways, this kind of compounder's work too He used to do Himself. However great His power and strength, though all creation was held within His own reality, He gave no room at all to Ahaṅkāra and did every task Himself, from the smallest to the greatest. He gave the path of karma a distinction all its own. To do karma of this kind, man must first of all develop icchā-śakti. Merely having icchā-śakti does not fulfil our wish. Jñāna-śakti too must join it. Even when Jñāna-śakti and icchā-śakti have both come together, our wish is not fulfilled. Here kriyā-śakti too must join these three. So only when these three guṇas join, only when they form a triad, only when there is purity in thought, word and deed, does our icchā-śakti reach fullness.

… a small example. We have a resolve of some kind. A wish arose. A wish arose to drink coffee. But merely because the wish arose, the coffee does not reach our hand. With this wish alone we fall into despair. Here we must make use of Jñāna-śakti. When we want coffee, we need milk for it, we need sugar, we need coffee powder, we need a stove, we need water, and only when we make many kinds of effort besides does it turn into coffee. So we must join icchā-śakti to this Jñāna-śakti; all these come together and add up to one Jñāna-śakti. But Jñāna-śakti has joined. Icchā-śakti has joined. Merely because these two have come together, has the coffee come into our hand? Here kriyā-śakti must join. So wanting coffee is icchā-śakti. What is needed for it is Jñāna-śakti. Putting everything together and making it is kriyā-śakti. Only when these three śaktis join is our wish fulfilled. In the same way, today we long, ‘We must have God.’ We long to have His vision. This is icchā-śakti. We must never believe that merely because we have this icchā-śakti, the vision of God will come to fruit for us. What path must we follow for this wish to be fulfilled? We must know this Jñāna-śakti too. Even that is not enough to bring us this vision of God. We must know this method and its rules and put it into practice. Only when we bring it into our daily practice do we attain the vision of God, through all three alone, icchā-śakti, Jñāna-śakti and kriyā-śakti.