In plain words
I cannot think of God. But I want God,’ and the man of this narrow mind cannot enquire what his own responsibility is. When you go to a shop and wish to buy something, the thing comes into your hand only when you pay the price due for it. If you do not pay him that price, you cannot have the thing. In the same way, the man of today asks God to give him welfare. He hopes for Mukti. He constantly asks for Śānti, happiness and prosperity. Is he ready to pay the price due for this result? Is he offering God, as the price, a sacrifice equal to this welfare? Is he offering God the price called “Prema”, the price due for receiving Śānti, joy and prosperity? Without paying the price, he only wants the goods. God is not so foolish. For everything He has given both success and the effort it needs. Only when we offer something to God do we become fit to receive happiness, joy and prosperity from Him. But we are not ready to offer God anything at all. We are ready only to receive. So, ‘a hero in words, a zero in deeds.’ Because this distorted way has grown in today's education, we are losing our right to the name “students”.
Sinking in hardship, swelling in happiness, they give any amount of advice to others, but how far does one practise what one preaches? They tell others to make sacrifices and teach them so, but how far does one make sacrifices oneself? We expect those who receive something from us to show us gratitude, but what gratitude do we show for what we receive? It is not enough to enquire into everything in the world and be satisfied with that. One must first set out to enquire into oneself, within oneself, into one's own principle, into one's own Satya.