In plain words
But giving room to the Ahaṅkāra that says “I am doing it”, he sinks lower day by day in the state of Ajñāna. So long as there is Ahaṅkāra, man cannot understand the matter of the Ātma at all. What is Ahaṅkāra? The delusion that one is the body is itself Ahaṅkāra. The body is a tool. Taking this tool as your support, you must do the work. We give importance only to the body, this tool, but we give no room at all to the power that gets this work done. The Avatāras keep coming to proclaim such divinity, such sameness, such oneness with Brahman.
Because a power that proves Satya is most necessary. There are flowers, a needle and thread. Does the garland make itself? There must be one who strings it, surely! There are the lamp, the wick, the oil. Does the lamp light itself? There must be someone who lights it, surely! In just the same way there is learning. There is the letter. There must be a study that shows the form of the letter, surely! To set it on the right path and make it understood, there must be someone who teaches, surely! There are gold and gems; do the ornaments make themselves? There must be someone who sets those gems into this gold, surely! Humanness is like gold. Their intelligence is like gems. If you do not recognise the one who uses it in the right way, the gold and the gems too lose their worth. Kabīrdās said, “nāma nirūpaṇa mūla vitante”; the one who does not know the worth of a gem misuses it. Whoever comes to know the worth of that gem, in his life great peace and security come about. In the same way, only the one who has recognised the worth of the gems that are the forms and names of God can put them to use in the right way. The fool who thinks lightly of it wastes his very life by that. So the humanness that recognises such worth has wasted away today. He is there as a human being, but humanness has come to nothing. That is precisely why: do not look at the form and be deluded into thinking it is a human being. The world gains nothing at all from a man in form only. A man of conduct is needed. A man of enquiry must grow. Only when there is conduct and enquiry does humanness become fruitful.
Today there is the power of enquiry. What is the use? He sees good as bad and bad as good. So there is no use in having this power of enquiry. Only when there is enquiry joined with practice can you recognise the right meaning. A small example. There was a man called Ghaṇṭākarṇa. He was the brother of Kubera. He lacked nothing at all, whether in property and possessions or in wealth, gold, goods and vehicles. He roamed in the forests called Badarikāśrama. What was his daily life?