In plain words
We must try to recognise the sacredness in what is called remembrance of the Name, and the fruit that lies in contemplation of the Name. Tukārām said: ‘Nāma nirūpaṇa malā ratanatē! Only he who has recognised the gem called the Name understands it. To those who do not know it, they take shape as mere ordinary words.
Students! This is a very sacred age. Remembrance of God's Name is most essential. You think lightly of it. A great mistake. In the world there is not one thing that cannot be achieved by the Name. Through the Name alone we can win even the One who bears the Name. The One who bears the Name means the form. If we want to buy something in the world, what all must we have in our hand? If we have money in hand, we can buy any thing at all. Then is the money greater, or the thing? The money is greater. Only if we have money can we get things. We can get the things called pleasure, joy, Ānanda, fruit and victory that are in this world. If we want to buy the things called pleasure, joy, Ānanda, fruit and victory that are in this world, we must win the wealth called God's Name. We must gather that wealth. Through that wealth alone can we nourish our character. Character is the chief thing for man. You must greatly develop that wealth called character at this age.
Students! Take a small example. Our life is a tree. In this tree our relatives and friends are like the branches and twigs. Our thoughts are like the flowers of this tree. Inside the fruit called our Ānanda there is the Juice called Character. But what is the very foundation of the tree? The roots. If there are no roots below and no fruits above, this becomes fire wood. It is not a tree. But now and then the birds called desire, anger, greed and delusion all settle on this tree. What happens when these birds settle? It causes nothing but commotion. It fouls the ground under the tree. That is why, standing under this tree, how do we drive away the birds that have settled on it? When we go “Iṣṣō, iṣṣō,” they all fly off at the sound of the mouth and the sound of the hands. So if, in the place called the heart within this tree called the body, you willingly make the sound ‘Rāma, Kṛṣṇa, Govinda’, all those birds will fly away. Now these three, too, become pure. What are these three? Mind, speech and body. In Vedānta they called this trikaraṇa śuddhi. The Rāma, Kṛṣṇa that is born in the mind must come into speech. To what has come into speech these hands must keep the beat. To the song that is speech, the mind is the pitch and the hands are the beat. Only when pitch, rhythm, melody and beat come together does trikaraṇa śuddhi happen in us.