In plain words
What does ‘spirituality’ mean? The principle of the Ātma is itself spirituality. We must recognise that principle of the Ātma. So what is spirituality? True spirituality is nothing but driving out the rākṣasa and the animal in us and making divinity manifest in ourselves. We must drive out the animal nature. That is true spirituality. However many pūjās we do, the animal in us only grows day by day and never dwindles. Anger and hatred surge up in us. Even at the moment when, after praying to God, we say at the very end ‘Śānti, Śānti, Śānti’, hatred shows itself. Even there anger comes to you. What then is the use of uttering Śānti? There is no Śānti in you yourself; will Śānti come from words? What is the inner meaning of saying ‘Śānti, Śānti, Śānti’ three times? We need Śānti in these three: the physical, the divine and the spiritual. Śānti of the body, Śānti of the mind and Śānti of the spirit: we say ‘Śānti, Śānti, Śānti’ for just these three. We must have Śānti in all three. Today, if we have Śānti of body, we have no Śānti of mind; if we have Śānti of mind, we have no spiritual Śānti. What use is it? People build rest houses aplenty. But they do not build a mansion of Śānti of the mind.
The true inner meaning of holy days is to bring one or two of the sacred qualities of great men into ourselves and prove them in practice
Śānti of the mind is the main thing. That Śānti of the mind comes to us through sacrifice alone. For this, we must crush Ahaṅkāra and possessiveness. Emperor Bali was a great emperor who crushed them in that way. We worship Emperor Bali. We adore him as ‘the great king’. But which of Emperor Bali's qualities are we developing?