In plain words
No. No. It is the principle of the Ātma that, hidden within as the power that makes us see, hear, feel and lose ourselves, gives life to all of them, urges them on and drives them.
All these are nothing but instruments. They are given the name karaṇas. Karaṇas means instruments. When you hold a knife in your hand, is the knife cutting? Is he cutting the fruit by his own strength? Holding the knife as a mere instrument, the person cuts the fruit. That is why in the Bhagavad Gītā too, 'Nimittamātraṃ bhava savyasāci': keeping you as a mere instrument, I make you carry out every kind of karma. Arjuna has another name, Pārthiva. Pārthiva means son of the earth. All of you are sons of the earth. You are Pārthas. It is the divine power alone that, keeping you as mere instruments, makes you carry out so many kinds of sādhana that fulfil so many kinds of karma. It is the power that is in everyone.
So this is the flame. The two professors spoke. The flame of Prema, the flame of Satya, the flame of the Ātma, the unbroken flame, the flame of non-duality, the flame of Ānanda. In this natural world no thing is seen greater than the flame. No other substance has the power that the flame has. The flame has the power to drive away darkness. Nothing else has the power to drive away darkness. That is why it is said, 'Tamasō mā jyōtirgamaya'. The flame has not only this one power; it has a second as well. The flame always goes upward. Even if you set a light in a pit, the light comes up; it does not go down. To root out darkness, to rise up to the heights: these are the chief qualities of the flame. If iṭē the flame is to burn for ever as an unbroken flame, it must have a support. This flame needs a lamp. Besides this there must be a wick. There must be oil in the lamp. Just because there are a lamp, a wick and oil, the flame will not burn. It needs fire.
There are lamp, oil and wick: will the lamp burn? There are gold and gems: will ornaments be made? There are flowers, needle and thread: will a garland make itself!
There may be flowers, thread and a needle, but there has to be someone to string them, has there not? Though there are gold and gems, there has to be a goldsmith to make the ornaments. Though there are lamp, oil and wick, there has to be someone to light it. He is God. Only when we take refuge in that God does humanness too turn into divinity.
Embodiments of Prema. Our heart itself is the lamp. Our mind itself is the wick in it. Our Bhakti itself is the oil in it. Vairāgya itself is the matchbox for it. Prema itself is the form of this flame. When this flame of Prema is not there, man sinks into the darkness of Ajñāna.