In plain words
In the past all the great sages, in just this way, sensed good thoughts and, through the influence of those good thoughts, became close kin to one another and were able to recognise the divine Ātma-principle. A small story. In Holland there lived a farmer called Ted Brostick. He was unmarried. That is, he had not taken a wife. He had a mother and a brother. Wishing to spend his life in peace, he went out beyond the town, bought forty acres of land and put up a hut on it, and only these three lived there: the mother, the younger brother and Ted. He passed his time raising crops and rearing some chicks in a corner. But one night a fox came in from somewhere, ate these hens and calmly went away. The next day, resolving to catch this fox somehow, he sat with his gun beside him. He was a man of steady mind. But as is the way of that country, he took raising these hens, eating them and protecting them to be his duty. Every day he lay in wait, watching, to shoot this fox. In this way he kept watch, not for one day, two days or three days, but for five years. The fox was not caught. Every day hens were disappearing. He kept on wondering what the reason for this could be. The sound of the fox coming could be heard. The sound of the hens crying out could be heard. The sound of it running back could be heard. But the fox was never seen. He went on telling many people of this mystery. "I must catch this fox somehow. I must shoot it somehow. Why is it not getting caught? How does it keep escaping?" he went on asking many people. At these gatherings a pure-minded man, who had read their mentalities, gave the right answer to this. "Son! You are resolving to kill it. As for this thought, it does not matter that it is a fox: the reason is that, just as good thoughts in a pure heart are reflected in a mirror, it shows itself to the fox. Even animals try to recognise the bad thoughts and the good thoughts of human beings."
A small example. We see it all the time in our daily life. As we walk along some road, a dog lies in a hollow right beside it. When there are no thoughts of any kind in us, it lies there without fear. Even if we walk right beside it, it does not get up. Come from twenty feet away, resolving that you will beat this dog. As soon as you come there, the dog neatly slips away.