In plain words
We are forgetting our own true form
In the Bhagavad Gītā He said, ‘The world is transient and without happiness.’ If you want to see permanence and happiness in such a world, where will you find them? You will not. They are not there. Go to the bazaar and see. Over one hotel it will be written, ‘Military Hotel’. Over another hotel it will be written that this is a ‘Brāhmaṇa Hotel’. If, without looking at this board, you go into the military hotel and want sāmbār and rasam, where will you get them? If you go to the Brāhmaṇa hotel and want pulao and kurma, how will you get them? You will not. Whose is this mistake? It is not the hotel's mistake. You went inside without looking at the name. If you had looked at the name written above and then entered, you would not be confused in that way. In the same way, this world has a board at the very start. ‘The world is transient and without happiness.’ If we really see that and enter, we will never at all expect lasting happiness and lasting Ānanda. Because lasting Ānanda is within us. Lasting happiness is right within us. That is our divine true form. We are forgetting our own true form. We look outside for reaction, reflection, resound. It is the world that lies in this reaction, reflection, resound. Real action, real reflection, real sound are in the Ātma alone! That is ‘Brahman is Satya, Jñāna, the Infinite.’ All these are within us. There is no need to try to search outside. They are within us. Forgetting this, we are searching somewhere else. A small example, for the students. You are reading the Bhagavad Gītā. While you are reading, your friend too came along. ‘What are you reading, dear boy?’ he asked. ‘I am reading the Bhagavad Gītā. I have entered upon the spiritual,’ you say. ‘What does the Bhagavad Gītā say?’ said your friend. ‘See for yourself,’ you said, and gave it into your friend's hands. Then he opened the book, looked, and said, ‘There are 10 rupees in your book!’ ‘I put it there long ago and forgot it,’ you said. What is this? Our heart itself is the Bhagavad Gītā. The precious wealth in it is God. Your true friend, God Himself, comes and turns each page and shows you there the ten-rupee note. Then this one says, ‘I no longer need your teachings. I have come to know it all.’