In plain words
Here too they started a steel factory. There too, in the same way, the Raw material ran short. Those who held the contract for it were Russians. A Russian came and set about developing it in India. Russian nature. Indian nation. Nation and nature did not agree at all. So this business came to an end within 3 or 4 years. The reason is that because they did it without thinking over the essence of these seven letters, obstacles kept arising like this midway.
So we must go on keeping these seven principles. He who has fully understood these seven rules becomes not a factory manager alone; he becomes a universal manager. This must come about in practice. Today what you study and what is taught goes along technical lines alone. There is no way for it to come about in practice. It is the business of the one who has brought it into practice that flourishes again in every way. So the root foundation of all this is, first, inquiry. Second, practice. Third, experience. The unity of these three must grow in the students. In the Bhagavad Gītā this is called jñātum, draṣṭum, praveṣṭum. Jñātum means you must inquire. What you have inquired into you must see with your eyes. Draṣṭum: you must see. Praveṣṭum: you must take it into yourself. If you ask what they made in our hostel, we heard that today they made ūtappam. You heard this. How many did you take? You think, "I took 3 or 4." You put them on a plate, looked at them and were delighted. But your hunger was not satisfied. Only when this ūtappam goes inside do you feel joy. Only then do you get the nourishment you need. In the same way, divinity is not merely hearing and reading in books. It must be brought into practice. What has been brought into practice must be put into action. You must become one with it. Only then will its fruit come to you.
But today man is the very form of the five sheaths. The very first of them is the annamaya kośa. That is our body. We have a great deal of interest in this annamaya kośa. The adornments and the cleansings we give it, we give to nothing else. This is necessary. From it people go as far as the prāṇamaya. If this prāṇa were not there, what use would this body be to us? Thinking the body counts only while there is prāṇa, he develops fondness for both. To keep this prāṇa going, he sells off his properties. Only a few go as far as the annamaya, come from the annamaya to the prāṇamaya, and from the prāṇamaya enter the manomaya.