In plain words
In this world many changes … in science, in the economy, in society and in politics. But without a change in the mind, however many transformations take place, this does not … the welfare of the world. A transformation of the mind, a spiritual transformation, is what the world needs most urgently today. Every field … rests on the transformation of the mind alone. Without a change in the mind we cannot achieve our … in any field. We read so many kinds of wonderful …, spiritual and scientific. But familiarity with books does not bring about in us as much change as we suppose … this familiarity with books does not give Ātmajñāna. It furthers our development only in the physical and the worldly, and no more. Merely reading books is not enough. We must make the effort it takes to put … what we have read.
Only when we put what we have read into practice does a certain experience, an Ānanda, …. When the great ones see those who are supreme devotees, they swell up and … to give them ever so much teaching of Jñāna. A small example. The moment the cow sees the calf, she lets down her milk. We must look into whether the calf has the right … that milk or not. The right to drink that milk: … does it come to the calf? If it is that mother's own young, the calf has the right to drink its mother's milk. If it … the young of another, it has no right at all to drink this mother's milk. In just the same way, … the great ones see a sādhaka, they long very much to give the teaching of Jñāna. But when is the right to receive that teaching gained? Only when love for that Ātmajñāna and affection for the guru who gives the teaching, … both come together, is the right to receive this Ātmajñāna gained. So, first of all, we must become rightful receivers. Only when we have won that right will this Ātmajñāna too come … . Ātmajñāna is not something easily had through books, or through the teachings of elders …. The courage and the faith to bear and to face any number of hardships, any number of losses, any number of sorrows must grow in a person. When does sādhana begin? Through karma sādhana …. Through Bhakti it blossoms. Through Jñāna it ripens. Karma, Bhakti and Jñāna stand as three classes. Yet these three are not separate.
Just as a man passes through three stages, childhood, youth and old age, in just the same way … it stands in three stages, karma, upāsana and Jñāna.