In plain words
Only in God do we gain this Ānanda of the Ātma; no Ānanda comes to us from goods and vehicles, from sense objects or from people.
For that Ānanda the Gopīs of old went through anguish of many kinds. ‘O God, we cannot stay away from You even for a moment. Your principle must become our principle. Our principle must become Your principle. Satya itself must become the principle. The principle itself must become Satya.’ With such a vision of prajñāna they went on examining. That very prajñāna they regarded as Brahman. So, in this way, they came to recognise the truth in the mahāvākya ‘Prajñānaṃ Brahma’. They were not ones to stay away from God even for a moment. Whatever form God took, they longed to live close to that form. ‘Sarvataḥpāṇipādaṃ.’ God is the form of all. He is everywhere. Where were they to search for such a Paramātma? Where were they to make the quest? All is God’s will alone. He Himself willed, ‘Ekohaṃ bahusyām.’ All forms too are He Himself. Having willed them, He gave the paths of karma, upāsana and Jñāna, which bid us recognise the oneness that is in the many. Through these paths we must recognise the truth that the Paramātma, whose form is infinite, is One in form. ‘Ekaprabhuko anekanām.’ But we must not regard the one as many. We must regard the infinite as one. We must regard the many as one.
Moment by moment man sinks into doubts. He is filled with differences and sorrows. Wherever one looks, difference. Difference of caste, of religion, of sex, of race, of colour: all of it is difference. Fear of war, great fear, fear for property: all of it is fear. Fear of drought, fear of famine. This fear and difference, these two, bind man. When we want these fears and differences to go, we must take up renunciation step by step. Fear and difference are rooted out by renunciation alone. What is renunciation? Merely leaving house and home, leaving one’s family, going off to the forest: that is not renunciation. We must put away the feeling of difference that is in humanness.
To leave the wicked feeling in one’s feeling, that is renunciation, and that is yoga. not leaving property and wife to go off to the forest.
Giving up such wicked feelings is itself true renunciation. We must enter into the truth ‘Sarvakarma bhagavatprītyartham’. Today mankind has advanced a great deal in worldly and material ways. But looked at morally, petty fault-finding and narrow feelings are going beyond all bounds. Whatever he sees, whatever he does, whatever he says, whatever he enjoys, self-interest, self-interest, self-interest: man lives as a puppet in the hands of self-interest.