In plain words
Are we making the proper effort for Śānti? This Śānti is within us; it is not outside. So when we want to attain this thing called Śānti, we must foster the right good feeling. We must practise it. How should we do it? First of all we must bring our personal feelings under control. Here personal enquiry is most urgent for man. If you want to recognise this humanness, you must think three times, 'I am a human being, I am a human being, I am a human being.' Merely by thinking, 'I am man, I am man, I am man', he cannot become a whole man. With this he can become only half a man. Then three more times you must think, 'I am not a beast, I am not a beast, I am not a beast.' Only then does it become the full truth. Today he imagines, 'I am a human being.' He says so. But he behaves like a beast. The beast itself is better than this, is it not? The beast behaves only as a beast: 'I am a beast, I am a beast.' But he thinks 'I am a man' and behaves like a beast. So the beast is better than the man. Where did this 'you are a man' come from? It came from Manas. So keep your Manas in the right state. Only when you keep Manas in the right state will you take shape as a true man. Ordinarily, in the world, when anyone does a wrong thing, we scold him, 'What, you beast!' What does it mean? It is blaming him: 'This is not work that you should do; this is work for a beast.' 'Hey!' 'Though you are a man, you behave like a beast': that is blaming him.
So Manas is a very noble thing indeed. 'Manayeva manuṣyāṇāṃ kāraṇaṃ bandhamokṣayoḥ.' It is fit even for Mokṣa: how can it be bad? It causes bondage, and it brings release from bondage too. But we must recognise the way we use it. There is a knife in your hand. You can cut fruit. You can cut vegetables; if something needs opening, you can open it and make it serve you with ease. If anger comes, you can cut your throat with this knife; but is this fault the knife's? No, no. It is the fault in the way we use it. Manas too is like that. If you set it on the right path, it will go only to a sacred place. Manas they have also called the trickster.