In plain words
The fruits we enjoy in the world, the joys and sorrows we go through, the pleasures and delights that make us glad: all of these are received as the gift of God's grace, not achieved by oneself. But man is proud that he is the one who achieves, the one who conquers, the one who provides in so many ways. This very pride is the root cause of defeat. This very pride is the root cause of unrest. This pride is the root cause of despair and dejection. So it is vital to recognise that there is One that is the support, and that this whole world moves upon It, and to act accordingly.
It is something you all know. In the cinema there is a screen, the lasting one that is Satya, and that screen is God. Many pictures come and go on this screen. Every man notices only the pictures that come and go. He takes in only the experience of the pictures. But he places no faith at all in the screen. He does not notice the screen at all. All these pictures that come and go appear only because they rest on the screen. Without the screen we would not see them. If one goes on trusting only the pictures, what meaning can one find? In just the same way, man today forgets God, trusts only Prakṛti and tries to live his life by it. This is a great mistake. Divinity is the support; we must enjoy Prakṛti as what rests upon It.
What man must trust today is God and nothing else. Bhakti. Bhakti. Bhakti is not some kind of dress. Nor is it some kind of costume. These costumes and these kinds of dress belong to Prakṛti. Today, when people are to visit elders, or go to a temple, or welcome a guru who is coming, they put on new clothes. Wearing silk garments never worn before, putting on rudrākṣa beads, applying vibhūti, coming out to the bazaar to receive elders, taking off their shirts and wrapping an upper cloth about them when they go to a temple: this they think of as a special task of its own. All the sādhakas of today divide things up in just this way: this is God's work, that is my work. The work of my home, the work of my children, the work of my office, the work of my business: all these are mine. Japa, dhyāna and pūjā: all these are God's. In this way devotees go on dividing. This cannot be called the right way. This costume is simply a way of cheating God. To the Divinity that is in everything, ‘sarvataḥ pāṇi pādaṃ’, where is there room for the difference of ‘this is mine, that is yours’? In just the same way, this is counted as a duty, but not as a responsibility or an obligation. We should think a little about what duty means.