In plain words
We go just as we were born. So we should not try to stuff our heads with anything of any kind. We should fill our heads with Divinity alone, with good alone.
Today many discourses are held. People do pūjās with many beliefs. They listen to recitals of the Bhāgavata and the Bhārata, all of them. But what is the use? Nothing goes inside. The reason?
Into an empty head you can put anything at all; can a skull that is full of all sorts of things become empty? Unless the skull is emptied can it be filled with good deeds on this earth?
No. No.
Though there be a mind of evil thoughts, though there be ears that listen to slander, though there be eyes that lie in wait to spy, though there be ears that listen at the doors, though there be a heart of deceitful nature, though there be a mind that cheats, as soon as these perversions are seen, … will not stay, brother.
Today, in everything, he stays bound up with narrow limbs alone. When a man comes face to face with us: "Namaskāram. Namaskāram." That is what we say. As soon as he turns away, you say, "Aha, that fellow!" We call him a loafer. This is the narrow feeling that has crept into humanness. Whoever they are, we must be the same with them, before their face and behind their back. This is the true worth of humanness. We must not criticise anyone. We must not revile anyone in any way. That is the very essence of the Upaniṣads. Sarva jīva namaskāraṃ keśavaṃ pratigacchati. Bow to everyone. To whomever you bow, it reaches God alone. In the same way, sarva jīva tiraskāraṃ keśavaṃ pratigacchati. Whomever we spurn, that too reaches Keśava alone. So we must make the effort it takes to respect everyone.
If the foot slips, no harm is done; if the tongue slips, it is hell!
If we slip and fall, we may get hurt. You can go to the doctor. You can put medicine on it, tie a bandage and heal it. But when the tongue slips, nobody knows where that heart has been wounded. What doctors are there to heal it? So we must not speak in a way that wounds the heart. You can not always oblige but you can always speak obligingly.