In plain words
There are two principles. One is the seer, the other is the seen. This seer is the principle of the Ātma, the witness. The seen is this principle of Prakṛti, made of forms and names. The seer is consciousness. The seen is inert. Man’s chief duty is to separate these two, the inert and the conscious. Man must use his intelligence in just this: in telling the two apart. He alone who experiences this yoga of separation is the true sādhaka. Man falls into sorrow precisely by joining the two. But, unable to recognise this truth, man falls into many kinds of unrest. So the important task is to recognise the difference between the seer and the seen and to separate them. However long we enjoy these worldly pleasures and riches, we cannot experience in them an Ānanda that is lasting, true and eternal. The more we enjoy them, the more they draw us into bondage; we cannot win Śānti and happiness in the least. The more we enjoy, the weaker these senses grow; they gain no strength. A small example. A fisherman goes to a pond and casts a line. At the end of the line he fixes a hook, sticks a piece of meat on it and throws it into the water. But the fish, which has no understanding, thinks, ‘Today I have found a great meal,’ comes with great eagerness and swallows the meat. As much joy as the piece of meat gave it, so much sorrow it suffers the next moment. By eating the piece of meat it takes the hook and loses its life. In the same way, we give in to these fleeting pleasures of the senses, enjoy them with great eagerness, and afterwards suffer great sorrow. In these there is never any lasting Ānanda or lasting happiness. ‘Anityam asukhaṃlokam.’ That is why the Buddha said, ‘Sarvaṃ duḥkham duḥkham, sarvaṃ kṣaṇikaṃ kṣaṇikam.’ Those who recognised such a truth were the great kings of old. Though they had every comfort and enjoyed every convenience, they gave up every attachment and set out for the forests to experience the Ānanda of the Paramātma. They held that renunciation itself is the true yoga. Or else, when we experience the truth that all is the form of God, we can experience such Ānanda.
Man must experience three kinds of principles. Among them there are three kinds of ākāśa. The first is bhūtākāśa. The second is cittākāśa. The third is cidākāśa. Bhūtākāśa is this whole earth our eyes can see, the forests, trees, hills and rivers, all these. The span of this earth is 8000 miles. Bigger than this is the sun. It is 8 lakh miles across. Greater still than this are all the stars. These stars stand at an immeasurable distance. We cannot say that the span of these stars is this much or that much. That is why the light of the stars travels a hundred and eighty, a hundred and sixty thousand miles in one second, that is, in the blink of an eye. This light that travels so far: the light of some stars has still not reached the earth even today.