In plain words
Merely by wearing the ochre robe Bhakti does not come as easily as a gooseberry in the palm; however much a mantra is chanted with the mouth, the glory of the Supreme Truth is not grasped; by taking up the Gītā and shouting it aloud merit does not pile up in our house. He in whom the words he speaks and the deeds he does are one is the true sādhu. When ego and slander of others, that foul rot, are cut away, the feeling that in all living beings the Lord of all is one, on the day that feeling is held fast in the mind, that day the company of sādhus will flourish.
Who are sādhus? Not only those who wear the ochre robe. All are sādhus. Saintliness is present in every living being. It is that saintliness we must grow. Not the sādhu’s costume. We must grow sacred feelings within us. It is by these sacred feelings that true saintliness shows itself. So we do not need to become sādhus. We do not need to put on costumes. We must make our hearts pure.
First of all, we must rid ourselves of the vices within us
Rāvaṇa too put on the costume of a sādhu. He carried Sītā off. So what was the root cause there, the costume or the evil nature? It is our vices that we must cast off. This must spread everywhere in the world today. Every human being must cast off the vices within him. Without casting off such vices, however much japa, however much tapas, however many yajñas and yāgas we perform, however many Vedas we chant and śāstras we study, there is no use at all. That is why, first of all, we must cast off the vices within us. Even the smallest help we give grows into something great. We must grow full faith. It begins for us in childhood itself. As the saying goes, ‘growing and growing, the elder brother-in-law became a monkey’: our minds all keep taking on the form of a monkey. There is a little story.
If we pray to God wholeheartedly, with a selfless and spotless heart, He fulfils our purpose through someone or other
A mother and her son lived together. They had no one to support them. The father had died as soon as the son was born. It was a poor family. The mother set her hopes on bringing the boy up somehow and giving his life a proper footing.