In plain words
This can be uttered in words, but to experience its principle is very hard. But in the Śivānandalaharī he set out Advaita in full. The Saundaryalaharī is out-and-out Advaita. Śaṅkara, who taught Advaita in so many ways, wrote it and gave it to the country, what did he say at the very last? Bhaja govindaṃ bhaja govindaṃ govindaṃ bhaja mūḍhamate: he came back down into that Bhakti. What he wrote, what he taught, was Advaita. What he practised, what he longed for, was Advaita. Bhakti means what is most worshipful. Most tender. Most sweet. Full of Ānanda. Full of delight. We must develop such Bhakti today. Bhakti is the very form of nectar. That itself is infinitude. That itself is immortality. It is this that Nārada taught. So we must change this heart full of Prema into one full of tyāga, and merge into this fullness of Yoga.
When you have given up what must be given up, when you have known what must be known, when you have reached what must be reached, can anyone say how great is the Ānanda that comes?
What must be given up: these feelings of the world. What must be known: this principle of the jīva. What must be reached: that principle of the Parabrahman. Such a one alone is immortal. It is just this:
Asato mā sadgamaya, tamaso mā jyotirgamaya, mṛtyor mā amṛtaṃ gamaya.
If we recognise the nature of the world well, there is no more worry for us. All these come and go like cinema pictures; not one thing is lasting. It is all Passing clouds Passing clouds. It has come. We think it is Satya. Even as we think it is Satya, it goes. By the time it goes, we think it is Asatya. When it comes, we think it is Satya. If we look at both of these, the things that come and go, Satya and Asatya, have turned into mithyā. Mithyā means what is not lasting. If we recognise this truth, this itself is the true relation with the world.
Who is the jīva? Where has this state of the jīva come from? Divinity itself is the root cause of this. In one place we have heaped up bits of iron. In another place we have heaped up bits of silver. In another place we have heaped up bits of copper. In another place we have brought all the diamonds and set them down. In yet another place we have heaped up gold. When we set a magnet down in their midst, it does not look at the value of the gold. It does not look at the value of the silver. It draws only the iron, which has no value. But for the bits of iron, which have no life in them, to move and come close to it, where did this life come from?