Passage 6

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In plain words

Only when we love every thing and every person do we become those who love God. Whoever we hate, we become those who have hated the Paramātma.

The principle of God rests on the feeling of the devotees. To God: "O God! Do You not see my pains? Do You not hear my weeping? Do You not see my state with Your eyes?" Those who keep praying so, with them, it is said, there are only eyes like a lizard's, only ears, it is said. There is no form, it is said. But the state of today's sādhaka is like this: in the hours of meditation and the like they stay in the ways of yoga. They show themselves like yogis. But once that hour of meditation is over, back in daily life he stays sunk in pleasures all the time. This is not what Kṛṣṇa said. He said, "Satataṃ yoginaḥ." If we change like this, a yogi at dawn, an enjoyer at noon, a sick man at night, how can we ever think of ourselves as "satataṃ yoginaḥ"? At all times and in all states, whatever we do, whatever we see, whatever we say, whatever we live through, we must be in the feeling of God alone. Your selfishness alone; blaming God in your hardships and praising God in times of comfort: this is a narrow nature, bound up with nothing but selfishness. This is not a broad feeling; whatever is to happen at whatever moment, in whatever time, whenever and however, cannot but happen. Whatever happens, we must take it as the gift of God alone. Only when we foster such Prema does true spiritual feeling arise in us. We must not foster only worldly kinship. Only the principle of the Ātma, the inner bond, is the true and lasting bond for this. Wherever I go, whatever I see, God's Ānanda alone is my Ānanda. This body is only a tool. What drives it, what moves, what experiences and what makes it experience: all of it is one's own divinity. Men who cannot recognise that divinity think, "We are devotees, we are devotees, we have given up every attachment, we are God's close kin."

Once, wishing to test those who swelled with pride as supreme devotees, Kṛṣṇa, who had taken a human form at play, put on a little drama. One day He acted as though He was suffering a pain such as no one had ever seen or heard of. "I cannot bear My headache," He said, and He bound a big towel on tightly and went on acting as though He was in great pain. Knowing what was to happen, Kṛṣṇa behaved in this way. Rukmiṇī, Satyabhāmā, Jāmbavatī, all the women around Him gathered. "Swami. Never have we seen this pain; why has this pain come, what is the medicine for it?" they kept asking.