In plain words
This is a day dream, that a night dream. This is a dream of the day, that a dream of the night. Both dreams are false to us. But you are Satya. You are not the body. You are not the Manas. You are not the Buddhi. You are not the citta. You are not the antaḥkaraṇa. You are the very form of the Ātma. Only when such faith arises in us do Bhakti and surrender grow in us and make our humanness fruitful. We must recognise the principle of the divine Ātma. Some people ask, 'Ātma, Ātma, they say: where is it, who has seen it?' It is not that there are none who have experienced it. But they may be far from sight. To your way of thinking they may seem untrue. A small example. Today is Wednesday. You say it is the 19th. Now then, how do you know that today is Wednesday, how do you know that today is the 19th? I am looking at the calendar. Who wrote this calendar? Some astrologer wrote it. On what basis did that astrologer write it? He wrote it on the basis of the science of astrology. So the science of astrology itself is the basis for this; how do we believe in it? Did today come with the name Wednesday written on it? How is it you so firmly insist that today is the 19th? On what basis? Only on the calendar that is on paper!
In the same way the words Ātma and Brahma arose from the Veda. For the Ātma existing, the Veda itself is the proof. To say that today is Wednesday, the Veda itself is the proof. This we believe. You do not believe in the Ātma, of which the Veda is the proof. The reason is that there is not so much faith in the Veda. You have boundless faith in this physical world. So for each thing, one thing or another stands as its proof. No one has the authority to criticise those proofs or to refute them. A small example. One boy asked another boy who his father was. He says, 'So-and-so is my father.' 'How do you know? When you were born you had no power or ability to see. Then you had no intelligence either. So what basis have you for calling him your father?' When he is asked this, that boy has to give a fine answer. 'My mother herself is the proof for saying that he is my father.' No one but the mother has the authority to say that so-and-so is the father. In just the same way, the Veda alone is the proof for saying 'Ātma', 'Brahma'. Apart from mere worldly arguments and counter-arguments, we neglect this holy divinity through want of faith.
So, whether or not we understand the proofs of these holy Vedas, śāstras, Itihāsas and Purāṇas, when we take the essence of all the Vedas to be the Upaniṣads, take the essence of all the Upaniṣads to be the Bhagavad Gītā, and worship the essence of the Bhagavad Gītā as the Name of God, the one Name alone: try to eat the sweet called the Name of God.