In plain words
Taking it as a support and an ideal, we must try to cross the ocean called life. Just as we reach the shore with the help of a boat, so with the help of the boat called the body we must reach the Ātma-tattva, which is Divinity. This is the secret of our journey. Where have we come from? Where are we going? What are we doing? We do not inquire into this at all. In small matters you may inquire a great deal. If you write a letter to someone, put it in an envelope, seal it and drop it in the post box, where will it go? You wrote the letter, yes. You put it in a costly envelope, too. You posted it, but there is no from address on it and no to address. If there is a from address, it comes back at least to you. Or if there is a to address, it reaches him at least. What do they do with letters that have neither? They put them in the dead letter office. They burn them. So all your lives are going on in just this way. We do not know where we have come from. We do not know the to address, where we can go on the basis of our conduct. We stay just where we are. In this way we are wasting it. This is not right. You must inquire. In science they do research into small, small matters.
What is the result we get from this physical research? You may get a good, high degree. You may hold high posts. You may earn as much money as you want. With that money you may get physical comforts. Is that all its aim? Is this the inner meaning of life? No, no, no. We must try to understand well the principle from which we have come. Each and every one of us must ask: what is the purpose of life, what is the secret of this life? We must ask ourselves, what is its inner meaning? No such questions are asked. We inquire into nothing at all. All the unnecessary matters, not what concerns you: once the newspaper comes in the morning, you sit and read it for an hour. In which country, in which state, through whom, what has happened: we come to know all of it. Whether news is coming from oneself or nuisance is coming, one does not look. What is the use of knowing the affairs of the world without looking at what is one's own? That is why Vedānta told us to know ourselves. Only he who has known himself can know everything.
For this way of knowing, go to those who are fit, take their advice and through it try to recognise the right meaning; or, if you think all this is useless, at least develop faith. Which faith? It does not matter even if you have no faith in God. Develop the faith of believing in yourselves.