In plain words
God has no coming and going
Tat-tvam-asi. That am I! But to think, ‘That itself is I,’ is not oneness! We must make those two one. Sugar stays sugar. Water stays water. Only when water and sugar are made one does it become a sweet drink. ‘Tat’ is that, ‘cit’ is this: join these two and it turns into a syrup called Ānanda. We must make these two one. That is the work we must do today. We must take every second as the form of God. This is only a year reckoned in the era of Christ. December and January may come, may go. But God neither comes nor goes. Within this, we must try well to recognise three things. One, once it goes, does not come back. The second, once it comes, does not go again. The third neither comes nor goes. What is it that comes and does not go? Jñāna. If Jñāna has truly come to us, it must never go again. What comes and goes is sleep. Once true Jñāna has come, it cannot go. What goes in that way is not Jñāna. Once it goes, it does not come back. That is Ajñāna. If it goes and comes back, that is Ajñāna within Ajñāna. That is what they called the unreal within the unreal. Next, what neither comes nor goes. That is the principle of the Ātma. What is everywhere: where is it to go? Only if there were some other place for it to go! If there is a separate place, we put up doors, as we have done now. Because there is a veranda outside, we have put doors here. There is a space outside, so a door to the outside was needed. If there were no space outside, we would put no door. Only if there is a space outside can one go out! There is no place at all: where is it to go, where is it to come? We read all these books and muddle our heads. We must put it into practical knowledge.
This is what the Gopīs said. ‘As I go to shut the door, a call to open it.’ On one side, the doubt in her own mind says, ‘Shut the door.’ What does faith say? The call: ‘Open it.’ Here, because faith and doubt both came together, Rādhā laughed, they say!