In plain words
On the day we cast off the chains called self-interest and selfish gain, on that very day Ānanda comes to us. We must turn this thing called self-interest into the good of others. We must believe that all is God’s work. We must develop the feeling that we are living in Ānanda itself. Sorrow. Sorrow: what form has sorrow? It is only a fancy of our delusions. Sorrow has no form. The cause of sorrow is nothing but not getting what one wanted. What is the cause of these desires? These desires are all delusions whose form is the world itself. We must enter a state beyond delusions. Delusions arise from the guṇas. God is beyond the guṇas. Only when we reach that level do all these illusions turn into Brahman.
Of all fascinations, the Gopīs of old had only one, the fascination for Kṛṣṇa; they had no other. They had no schooling. They read no Vedas, śāstras, itihāsas or purāṇas. They performed no yajñas, yāgas or rites. Pure Prema. Selfless service. That Prema alone is enough. That is ananya Prema. We may call this very thing parama Bhakti, and that same thing sādhya Bhakti. Where there is Prema, there is śraddhā. Where there is śraddhā, Jñāna arises. ‘Śraddhāvān labhate jñānam.’ Where there is Jñāna, there is sādhana. Where there is sādhana, right there is the goal. That goal is parama Bhakti. That parama Bhakti is ananya Bhakti. This is true renunciation. Kṛṣṇa alone was the one form in which their bodily fascinations and the longings of their minds were joined.
What we need today, in the Kali age, is nāma and dāna. Nāma and dāna: these two alone matter most for us. Which nāma? Which dāna? Dāna does not mean putting a nāmam on someone. Dāna means the gift of food. Nāma means the Name of God. Why? ‘Annaṃ Brahma.’ We must experience that principle of Brahman in this form. In the Name we must see the One it names. Here the inert and the conscious stand as the two, the named and the name. They take form as kṣetrajña and kṣetra. They take form as Ātma and anātma. These are called dehi and deha. They are also called śarīra and śarīri. That is, one is conscious, the other inert. Our chief sādhana is to separate these, the inert and the conscious; or else, the chief sādhana is to make the two one. Only when we become one in it do we experience this divinity.
Embodiments of Prema! We must try to reach the Paramātma through Prema alone. Apart from this Prema, we cannot reach God in the least by any other path. We may do tapas. We may regard this as merely one kind of good deed. Then again, we may perform all the yajñas, yāgas and rites. Through them purity of citta may come. ‘Cittasyaśuddhaye karmaḥ.’ Through these karmas purity of citta may come. Through it we may reach heaven. ‘Kṣīṇe puṇye martyalokaṃ viśanti.’ Then, as soon as the fruit of that merit is spent, we must come back again to the world of mortals.