In plain words
So good and bad lie in our own hands. Whatever deeds we do, those are the fruits we receive. As we make our Time worthwhile, so is the fruit we gain. We must strive to experience this Lord whose form is the year, whose form is Time.
The ideal life, the spiritual life
God is not one who yields to worldly wealth, to worldly power or to worldly strength. He yields without fail to a spiritual heart alone. In the world we live again the nights we have already passed, we live again the days we have already passed, we wash again the face we have already washed, we feed again the stomach we have already fed. We pass once more the very year we have already passed. But are we trying to lead a life that is noble and that sets an example? We are not trying. When Time is spent like this, what is the worth of life, its ideal, its highest goal? No one makes much effort to think about this. That is why what we must think about today is a life that is noble and exemplary: through spiritual experience we must try to bring forth our joy as an example to others.
Sādhana is the goal, the goal is sādhana
We are doing sādhanas. When we ask ourselves, “What is the fruit of these sādhanas?”, we cannot make it out at all. All these are practices done only to satisfy the mind. As I see it, there is no such thing as sādhana on one side and the goal on the other. The sādhana itself is the goal; the goal itself is the sādhana. People are under the illusion that by doing some sādhana or other they will gain a divine experience. This is only a small satisfaction of the mind. The true sādhana is to give up the feeling of the non-Self, the feeling that we must do a sādhana. To turn our gaze away from the non-Self towards the Ātma: that is sādhana. Today we gain many kinds of knowledge in the world. But none of these is true knowledge. It may be knowledge of some substance, or knowledge of some subject, or knowledge from some kind of research. But knowledge of the Ātma is true knowledge. The Ātma and Jñāna are not different. The Ātma is Jñāna, and Jñāna is the Ātma. So knowledge of the Ātma alone is true knowledge. The Veda says: Satyam, Jñānam, Anantam, Brahma. Satya, Jñāna, Ananta, Brahma: these are different names of the one Paramātma. They are only names for the same thing. These four are not different from one another.
What sādhana should one do?
What sādhana should one do? Japa? Dhyāna? Yoga? Yajña? Or what else? All these meditations we do are only for the satisfaction of the mind.