In plain words
we need men who inquire”: that is what it has hoped for.
Today many are studying the Veda mantras. They learn them by rote, but to do it knowing the meaning is very hard. By chanting the Veda knowing its meanings one can experience a fuller Ānanda still. Merely uttering the names of good things to eat gives us neither their taste nor their joy, neither their nourishment nor their satisfaction. We say “rasagulla”, “sweets”. We read the names of these delicacies of today in a book. Merely by reading them, merely by uttering them, we do not taste their sweetness in the least. The sweet delight that comes when we eat it is not to be had from these words or from thinking of it. So too, merely by uttering these mantras, merely by reciting them, we do not understand their full divinity. Only when we also grasp their inner meaning well and act on it does their sacred form become manifest to us. The Veda pervades the whole universe, with a broad feeling, with thought full of Viveka, with a feeling full of Vijñāna; it is not something that stopped short in narrowness. In every matter it has proclaimed equal-mindedness. It has fostered oneness. In hardship and happiness alike it has shared out equal-mindedness.
But man today, even while chanting those mantras, cannot grasp the sacred essence that lies within them. It is enough to understand a single mantra rightly. In the Śānti mantra, people recite this mantra every day: “Saha nāvavatu saha nau bhunaktu.” What is the meaning of this mantra?
Together, in harmony, let us go about; together, in harmony, let us conduct ourselves; together, in harmony, let us make plenty and friendship, strength and virtue grow; together, in harmony, let us nourish the understanding we have gained; together, in harmony, untroubled, let us live with understanding.
That is its meaning. What a broad meaning this mantra carries! To all such broad mantras people gave narrow meanings, and in that way they carried the Vedas forward. Of the equality and oneness there was in those days, not even one part in a thousand is to be seen today. It is because it is so whole and complete that
Pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idaṃ pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate, pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate.
That is the principle that is whole and complete. This is the very meaning of the Veda. Because the feelings of man today have sunk even lower than merely human feelings, this separateness has kept on growing.