In plain words
However much one tries to remove the reflection of the moon that appears in the oil in a bowl, it cannot be done. Even if one burns the vessel in the fire, it is not possible to remove the reflection that appears in the oil within it. The basis of the reflection is the oil and nothing else. As long as there is oil in the vessel, the reflection goes on appearing.
Will pounding on the anthill kill the snake? Will punishing one's own body make the enjoyments of the senses subside? Does one become an Ātma-jñānī by giving up hunger and thirst? If one does not know who one is, how can tattva-Jñāna come about?
Who is one? What is one's nature? What is one's goal? One must first inquire into one's own truth for oneself. Only when one recognises that divinity does everything become easy to understand. Nothing is to be found in the world that is without divinity. That divinity one must recognise oneself, and oneself alone; divinity has no authority to recognise divinity.
Does the fruit itself know the sweet juice in the fruit? Does the creeper enjoy the nectar in the flower? Does the book enjoy the sweet savour in the poem? How would a scholar of pravṛtti know the literature whose essence is nivṛtti?
For knowing oneself, one's own self alone is the root support. But, not recognising this truth, people pin titles on themselves: that they are devotees, that they are jñānīs, that they are yogīs. It is very easy for people to say all on their own, ‘We are devotees of Rāma, devotees of Kṛṣṇa, devotees of Sai.’ But to reach that presence of Prema in actual practice is very hard. For this one has to understand a subtle principle that is in man. One must first recognise that one is the principle beyond the body, the mind and the senses. As long as man lives with the feeling of body, mind and senses, he cannot recognise his true svarūpa, he cannot understand it.