In plain words
That ripple did not stop there. It spreads all over the pond. Whether we see it or not, that ripple has spread through the whole pond. In just the same way, when a resolve, a bad feeling or a good feeling, falls into the lake of our mind, it spreads through the whole body. If it is a good resolve, we do good work with our hands. We speak good words with our mouth. We see good sights with our eyes. When it is a bad one, the work we do with our hands, the words we speak with our mouth, the sights we see with our eyes, what we hear with our ears, all turn bad. Our sacred histories have been proclaiming a great deal about such ideals and such foundations. From time without beginning, the great ṛṣis, who built the best path, the royal road, for this sacred human life, went on spreading the teaching in the way of practice. Today there is no such spreading through practice; there is only talk and teaching about the principle of Brahman, about the principle of karma, about the principle of Dharma. Because there is no practice, we are drifting away in every way from this Ānanda. If we look at it another way, with physics as our guide, there is no need at all to doubt whether there is such a thing as the fruit of karma for us. Go and stand in front of a mirror! Standing in front of the mirror, bow to that reflection. That reflection bows back to you. Standing in front of the mirror, strike that reflection. It strikes you back. Standing in front of the mirror, make fun of that reflection; it too makes fun of you. So everything is reaction, reflection, resound. One thing more. ‘I hit this table hard,’ you think. You are very proud that you hit it hard. No, no; that table hit you just as hard. That you forget. In every matter this fruit of karma is a very important point for the people of Bhārata. All of us are born wearing this garland called the fruit of karma. But we forget the garland.