In plain words
In the darkness called Ajñāna, we see a garland of flowers that gives a sweet fragrance and fall into fear and panic, taking it for a snake. But our fear has arisen only from the delusion that it is a snake, not from Satya. When we shine a ‘torch’ on it and see that it is a garland of flowers, the fear of the snake leaves us. In the same way, it is because we live in the delusion ‘I am the body, I am the senses, I am the Manas, I am the Buddhi’ that we fall into many sorrows, many griefs and many kinds of unrest. If by inquiry we recognise the Satya that the body, senses, Manas and Buddhi are not I, troubles will not trouble us in the least. If we fall into this fear and panic, it is because we are in truth living by delusions about the body. That is why all the ancient ṛṣis too went to the forests and gave up their bodies, to rid themselves of delusions about the body and to give the world the ideal ‘I am not the body’. So, taking up sannyāsa of this kind. Or wandering in the forests. Or setting out on renunciation of many kinds are only ways of bringing about an ideal life of one kind. We must recognise the Satya that they are not other paths.
As long as we do not know Satya, doubt is bound to be with us. Once doubt enters us, Satya is not seen by us. If doubt enters at the front door, faith, they say, runs out at the back door. So what does it mean that our faith is all running away? Doubts are entering our house by the front door. Doubt is a disease of the heart. This heart disease swallows you up in a moment, like a monstrous ghost. So the monstrous ghost that swallows us is the disease of the heart. If you ask what this disease of the heart is, it is doubt; that is why the Bhagavad Gītā has taught, “Saṃśayātmā vinaśyati.” As long as you have doubt, ruin is bound to follow. So step onto the field of action with complete faith.
Today all the Bal Vikas gurus must, without any doubt, put the aims we have decided upon into practice with holy hearts. If we say only in public meetings, ‘These are very noble aims, holy sādhanas,’ and then, in our own daily lives, do not believe in them and do not practise them, this becomes a great betrayal. We have been uttering grand words. But we are not putting them into practice even in the smallest measure. Today they travel even to the moon, lakhs of miles away.