In plain words
The joy of the senses passes in a moment
The joy of the senses passes in a moment. When we take food for our hunger, joy comes at once. But two or three hours later, hunger strikes again. Again we need food. Even the cakōra birds, enjoying the moonlight, may grow weary of it. If you go on eating it without a break, even nectar may turn bitter. But Brahmānanda is not something that wearies you in this way. Brahmānanda is man's own home. Just as a fish has no joy in a golden bowl set with precious stones if there is no water in it, so man has no lasting Ānanda in a universe that holds everything. Man is yearning for Brahmānanda, his own home. Though the joy of sense objects belongs to Brahmānanda, it is not his own home. Rivers born of the sea flow only to reach the sea again. In the same way, the stream of human life, which came forth from Brahmānanda, finds no lasting Śānti until it reaches again its own home, Brahmānanda.
So it is with the joy of learning, too. The arts of music, literature, painting, sculpture and dance all give only a joy that passes in a moment. Though Tyāgarāja was lost in music and poetry, he yearned for lasting Ānanda. We are deluded into thinking that the things of the world will give us every comfort. They do give them, true! But not lasting Ānanda.
Brahmānanda alone is true Ānanda
You must forget the delusion that God is somewhere out there, as you go about saying ‘God, God’. You yourself are God, you yourself are Saccidānanda, you yourself are asti, bhāti and priyam. The moment you let go of the delusion, you become the very embodiment of Satya. If you have the wish to experience this Saccidānanda, you must keep remembering this always.
‘I am God, in no way other than That; I am that undivided Parabrahman; grief and affliction will not touch me; I am Saccidānanda, not other than That; I am ever content, fear will not reach me; O heart! Speak these words: Om Tat Sat!’
Do not let into your heart in the least such weak feelings as ‘I am small, I am powerless, I am low, I am one who wears a mean body’. The body is only a vessel. This body came into being to live out Dharma, artha, kāma and Mokṣa and to hand on an ideal path to others, not for eating and sleeping. A life without Ānanda is like a body without breath. All Ānanda comes only from Brahmānanda.
But to recognise the principle of Brahman and to experience Brahmānanda, we must do some sādhanas. Whatever we do, whatever we see, whatever we say, all of it springs from what lies within. However much we enjoy with the gross body, those things cannot bring us to the goal. We must settle the subtle principles, prāṇa, Manas and Vijñāna, within the gross body.