In plain words
In every religion no one can separate these three.
Students! You must enquire what man's purity is like, and use it. This enquiry too must be done with Viveka. You must not bring in mere knowledge. Knowledge is one thing. Viveka is another. However great the knowledge, without Viveka it becomes useless. Danger comes. So only when there is Viveka does knowledge too become useful. Viveka needs humility. This humility is the chief life-breath of education. All of these are held together by the spiritual alone. To understand all these, first practise dhāraṇā.
When should it be done? Time too has the guṇas sattva, rajas and tamas. The earth too has the guṇas sattva, rajas and tamas. See, air is sāttvic. It goes up from the earth as vapour. Next, the rājasic. The rājasic is liquid. Rājasic means moving, you see. Wavering in many ways. There is the tāmasic. The tāmasic is inert. The tāmasic is the material of physics. The rājasic is chemistry. What is joined with the relation of these two is the sāttvic. That is what causes the creation of all. That is bioscience. In these three there are qualities of this kind. In time too there are the three. Here, from eight at night until four in the early morning, the eight hours are tāmasic time. Now even the cattle and birds sleep. This is called the time of ghosts. It is very strong for demons. It is very potent for tāmasic tendencies. From eight in the morning until four in the evening is the time of rajoguṇa. Everyone starts work. Officials and officers go to their offices from eight until four. That is the time when all work is done. Those eight hours are rājasic. From four in the early morning until eight, four hours; in the evening, from four until eight, four hours. These four and those four make eight. Sāttvic, eight. Rājasic, eight. Tāmasic, eight hours. Eight times three is twenty-four hours: it comes out exactly right.
From four in the morning the sāttvic begins. We should all be up by then. Within this sāttvic time we must begin our sādhana, or our study. That is the sacred state. Getting up at that hour, you too need not bathe, rouse the senses and fall into a muddle like this. You need not bathe. At that time the senses are very calm. They are at rest. Within that rest, whatever you think of, the principle of God reaches it very directly.