In plain words
These bits of iron have no legs! These bits of iron have no wings! No one tied a rope to them and pulled! It was this magnet that drew them. When that magnet is near, it moves anything at all. It opposes anything. It makes anything act. That Magnet is this Ātma principle. It is through this Ātma principle that all beings, all the senses and all living creatures too go about their own several tasks. So we must make an effort to know such an Ātma principle.
But what is the way to know this Ātma principle? All that is, is the Ātma. Wherever you look, the Ātma. What fills everything through and through is the Ātma. Every object is the Ātma. Every matter is the Ātma. Every person is the Ātma. What more is there to know of it? But because we imagine something called the not-Ātma, we cannot see this Ātma directly. If we remove the not-Ātma, the Ātma becomes itself. So among the nine kinds of paths we follow,
śravaṇaṃ kīrtanaṃ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṃ pādasevanaṃ arcanaṃ vandanaṃ dāsyaṃ sakhyam ātmanivedanaṃ,
What are all these paths doing? They are not merely for the vision of the Ātma. We need not hope at all to see the Ātma. It is enough to remove the not-Ātma. We are doing these sādhanas for the sake of removing the not-Ātma, not to see the Ātma as something new. We must first lay this truth well in ourselves as a foundation. Only when we lay firmly those foundations that are true for ever do we win full victory, whether in service or in sādhana. If we keep turning into an anthill of doubts all the time, how will we achieve victory in this sādhana? So, over every little thing, this Manas undergoes a great …. There is no strength or capacity left at all to experience what is called the Ānanda of the Ātma. All these delusions are noses stuck on. With a single cough this nose falls off; if you sneeze, will it stay? It flies a yard away. Through such thoughts, passing and impermanent, we can never at any time receive the Ānanda of the Ātma, which is true for ever. So first every person, every sevak, must develop the feeling, "The Ātma alone is the support; I am the embodiment of the Ātma." "The Ātma that is in me is in all. The Ātma that is in all is in me. So whatever pain comes to anyone, it is mine." Only when we develop this feeling can we do service full of Ānanda. We can make others happy. To hold on to these body-feelings, which are only costumes we have put on, and to throw needless arguments back and forth: this is not the right path.