In plain words
But she is a little short, we say: what took the measure of her form? The eye took the measure. So the eye is a measuring rod. Today our warden made dal. They said the dal was a little short of salt. The tongue took the measure: this dal was short of salt. In the same way, for everything, each sense takes the measure. This is good, this is bad. When we hear some good songs, we say, ‘Ah! How sweet they sound!’ When something is out of tune, they say, ‘Oh, it is not pleasant to hear.’ What measured this? It was our ears that measured it. In just this way, all our senses measure each thing and decide. Since our senses are things that measure, the fulfilment of the senses lies in our measuring well and using them within a limit. This is what we must take care over today. This is what we must put to use. It is only because the senses take the wrong road that humanness and the Buddhi are clouded over. As our senses grow excited, we must not follow them.
‘You may master every branch of learning and win over the assembly.’ Ah! ‘What a grand speech he gave!’ And so each one may win a name. ‘You may rule a kingdom as a king of kings, you may give gifts of gold and cows.’ You may give a little gold in charity. You may give a cow in charity. You may give land in charity. You may give every kind of gift. Karṇa took off his very earrings and gave them away. But what use was it? He cut off even his skin and gave it away. But what use was it? ‘Where does the key to it lie? Where is its goal? Where does its root lie?’ If we inquire into this, the root lies in the heart itself.
It is because of these karaṇas that the Manas too was named ‘antaḥkaraṇa’. Karaṇas means the senses. The Manas alone is named antaḥkaraṇa. What is this Manas like? It is an upādhi. As for what this Manas is like: ‘manana’, it is what ponders without ceasing. ‘Mananāt iti manaḥ,’ they said in the Bhagavad Gītā. What grows unceasingly with thoughts that will and doubt is the Manas. You may keep from speaking with anyone at all. But your thoughts go on talking as they please. Until sleep comes at night, you go on talking. How? Not one student with another student. You are talking to yourselves. That is what we call thought. Because the speed of these thoughts grows great from time to time, now and then they fall into disorder. They lose their way. For this very reason, many teachers, many officers of education, and students too, are becoming somewhat mad today. The power and the ability to decide what must be done and what must not, what must be seen and what must not, what is good and what is bad, keep dwindling in them. What is the reason? It is only because the speed of these thoughts in them grows fierce that our condition sinks into such a sorry state. So we must not give our thoughts the least speed. With supreme calm … How must we be? Whatever anyone says, though they revile us, however anyone may regard us, in everything we must have a spirit of patience. Tapas is of three kinds. One is the tapas of the Manas. One is the tapas of speech. One is the tapas of the body. Within this tapas of the body there are five kinds of tapas. By worshipping gurus, God and elders, taking refuge in them, winning their goodwill, listening to their teachings, taking their commands upon our heads and doing certain kinds of practices, we become worthy of their grace. We are able to receive their blessings. This is the first tapas done with this body. Seeing elders, hearing the teachings of elders, putting into practice what we have heard: all such things are one tapas done with the body.
The second tapas is cleanliness within and without. Just as we bathe the body and make it pure and clean, in the same way we must also keep our surroundings clean. Our body, our feelings, our surroundings, all of these we must keep clean. The third is brahmacarya. Brahmacarya is not only staying unmarried. Spending our time with pure feeling, with a spotless citta, with a heart that is selfless and free of deceit, with divine Prema for God: that itself is brahmacarya. You know Hanumān. We say he is a lifelong brahmacārī. But he was married. Śrīvatsala married him. Yet the reason he is called a brahmacārī is that he moves ever in Brahman. So they called him a brahmacārī: ever remembering the name of Rāma, ‘Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Rāma’, in every hair of his body, he moves ever in Brahman alone. So he is a brahmacārī. Our thinking, our feeling, our will, our deeds, our everything must move in Brahman alone. That they called brahmacarya. Whatever we do, whatever we see, whatever we say, we must regard it as God. It is not only keeping certain rules with this body. That too is needed.