In plain words
Until we know the support and the supported, outward acts of this kind are most necessary. But we cannot go on experiencing the supported all our lives. Its goal is to recognise the support. So surface japa, surface dhyāna, surface bhajans, however long we do them, turn into nothing but acts that waste our time. We are examples, not exhibitions. For ten people to praise us, for ten people to approve of us, or to stand as an ideal before ten people: it is not for these that we perform these outward acts. We must strive precisely to curb these outward acts to some extent. It is through surface practice, surface words and surface deeds that atheism is growing strong in Bhārata. In every act we do, we must recognise its inner meaning. We must construe that word too. What we are saying, what we are doing, what it means: this too we do not recognise. We waste time in acts whose meaning we do not know. You will have heard it an hour ago. Those who recite the Vedas kept chanting ‘Ātmāya namaḥ’, ‘Ātmaliṅgā yanamaḥ’. Now, is ‘Ātmā ya namaḥ’ correct? Or is ‘Ātmāya namaḥ’ correct? One must say “Ātmāya namaḥ”. But because we have not recognised its principle, by splitting it up as ‘Ātmā yanamaḥ’, ‘Ātmaliṅgā yanamaḥ’, we are wasting even its meaning.
That is why, in Bhārata, for the sacred Vedas to be fulfilled, it is most necessary to recognise their meaning too. We have heard many times that the essence of the Veda is the very form of God. But we must take such a Veda and bring it into the path of making ourselves holy. Whatever we come to know, we must try to practise it in thought, word and deed. This is what they have been calling trikaraṇa śuddhi. Our speech, our body, our Manas: we must carry on our sādhana in the effort to make them holy. We must not wound the hearts of others in the least with words. We must not cause others pain with the body. We must not think of betraying others in our Manas. On the day we make such actions meaningful, we receive the fruit of having performed yajñas, yāgas and rites.
Above all, in the world today, hurting the hearts of others with speech goes on without measure; the tongue is most sacred; the eye has only one power. It can only see. The ear has only one power. It can only hear. But the tongue alone has two powers. One is speech, the second is taste. So only when we put words to sacred use does it find its fulfilment.