In plain words
You must ask, ‘Who am I?’ I am not body. ‘I am not soul I am I’: so in Vedānta, neti neti, not this not this. That is why the body is an instrument. In sleep there is nothing; everything has gone. Then you were in Ānanda. Where did this Ānanda come from? Did it come from outside? It came from you alone. Real bliss came from you alone. It is within you alone. Artificial bliss lies on the outside. As much as it gave, so much it takes back. So we must not try for artificial bliss. That too has to be there. As long as we are in the world, dignity, money, house, respect: all these have to be there. But we must not hold this alone to be the chief thing. How many have gone, in how many ways!
Once upon a time Janaka was engaged in enquiry. He was a rāja-yogi. A rāja-yogi means one who carries out his duty while keeping his aim fixed on God. That is how he was. He kept on discriminating: ‘what is truth what is right’, so he used to reflect. One day he had a good meal. His attendants were all fanning him. In those days there were no electric fans. Some were pressing his legs. The queen was standing beside him. Because he had eaten, sleep came to Emperor Janaka. The queen told the servants to go away. So that the king should have no disturbance. ‘He is taking rest,’ she said, and told them to go. They went. Janaka fell asleep. She too did not disturb him at all. She too lay down. Two hours passed. That is called 3 ghaḍiyas. He got up. Who am I? Who am I? What is true? What is true? In his sleep a dream had come. In that dream all the other kings marched against him. They defeated him and drove him out of the kingdom. He was wandering in the forest. His hunger grew. Crying ‘Hunger! Hunger!’ he wandered all over the forest. Poor man. Under a tree some forest people were eating rice from a basket. He went up to them and said, ‘Food! Food!’ Those forest people put rice on a leaf and gave it to him. When he was about to eat in his hunger, a kite came and carried off the leaf. He did not get even the food! Crying ‘Hunger!’ he woke up. When he looked: the palace. The queen was there beside him. He himself was lying on the sofa. The kingdom was overflowing with diamonds, cat's-eyes, emeralds and topazes. He saw it. It all seemed mad. In the dream the food had slipped away from him. Is that true, is this true: this alone was his question. The queen: Mahārāja, it is nothing. Is that true? Is this true! She sent for the priest. She sent for the jñānīs. They all came. Vasiṣṭha too came. Vasiṣṭha grasped it with his yogic vision. That is not true. This is not true. You are true. You are in it; that is not this.