In plain words
Sorrow over money, sorrow of ill health, sorrow of the Manas, sorrow of family life. The root cause of all these sorrows is nothing but the karma we ourselves do. Some may wonder, ‘What is the reason I suffer sorrow like this?’ God is not the cause of the fruit of these karmas, nor of their success. Whatever kind of karma we do, we cannot escape receiving that kind of fruit.
Sin is not something apart, in a foreign land; it clings to the deeds one does; God is not apart, in some other land; He stays bound to the deeds one does.
So beastliness and humanness can come to light in our deeds alone.
Today we proclaim the qualities of man and humanness in many ways. Before we proclaim them, we must put them into practice. In today's world the condition of students has gone beyond all bounds and sunk to a level of turmoil; what is the root cause? Is it for want of books that set out humanness? For want of gurus who teach humanness? For want of educational institutions? There is knowledge, as much as is needed. In the market, books that teach spirituality and bring out humanness lie in plenty upon plenty, in heaps upon heaps. And gurus who give spiritual teachings roam from street to street. But what is the reason that no change at all comes about? The root cause is that those who wrote the books and the gurus who teach do not put this knowledge into practice. Here the conduct of teachers is greatly needed. Only when the one who teaches is a guru with the strength to practise in daily life the very thing we teach the children, or to bring it to them in the right way, can the students come to the right path. Today we give many lectures. Having read something in some book or other, taking quotations someone has spoken, taking the Bhagavad Gītā or an Upaniṣad or the Brahmasūtras, and putting all these together, we get ready for a lecture. Because such artificial lectures have multiplied, the right growth is missing in the students. It is not by our teachings that students are to change. They must change through our conduct. We speak, but do we walk the way we speak? When we cannot walk this way, how will the students follow these things? It becomes no more than a kind of exercise. Human life is like a river with a whale in it. To swim in this river where the whale lives and pick the lotuses in it is a hard exercise. ‘Life is a piece of ice. While it lasts, help the people around you grow,’ a śāstra has said. So we must develop the feelings of Śānti within us, and while this Śānti lasts, share Śānti with all around us.
Above all, for the sādhakas and the teachers in our institutions, trikaraṇa śuddhi is most essential. In the culture of Bhārata they tell us to do even the smallest task with trikaraṇa śuddhi. They tell us to speak with trikaraṇa śuddhi. They tell us to listen with trikaraṇa śuddhi. The first is to tread down the inner conversations, so that the Manas is free of impurity. Uttering our words with sacred feelings, without hurting others by them. Through action, always doing deeds that help others. Today we must gather the stock that belongs to these three. We must develop the teachings that give these three instruments the right strength. Whether we believe in God or not, we must first of all recognise the Satya called the law of nature. We must cultivate the faith that whatever is done bears its fruit. Only when this faith is there is there the zeal to put it into practice. They said: circumstance + effort = the individual. And they said: the individual X infinity = God. This they also called the Virāṭsvarūpa. This Hiraṇyagarbha means mind X infinity = hiranyagarbha: if we take the mind not as a narrow mind but as a broad, infinite mind, that itself is Hiraṇyagarbha. Life is the bridge between the seen and the unseen. We think earning money is what makes humanness worthwhile. We think the money one earns is the very worth of humanness. We think the knowledge one has gained is the very worth of humanness. Riches, knowledge, learning, money: none of these has anything at all to do with humanness. Man is of more worth than all of these. But in the humanness of today we do not recognise this meaning; we take love of life as what matters most. Having love of life is not what matters. We must lead a life full of Prema.
Many times over I keep saying that we must lead a life full of Prema. But are we putting that Prema into practice, even a little?