In plain words
Vairāgya is nothing but giving up desires. All these come to us in service. When a man is a leader, he is full of Ahaṅkāra. This Ahaṅkāra brings a man down. This Ahaṅkāra swells a man's self-interest. It makes desires grow day by day. So, to lessen these desires and put Ahaṅkāra to death, you must bend the back and set out as a servant. One who has not been a servant is not a leader. Because none of today's leaders knows what it is to serve, the whole world under today's leadership has had to suffer many hardships. If we are to become God: only on becoming a kiṅkara does one become Śaṅkara. It gives a great chance to be rid of Ahaṅkāra. We must make this sacred time fruitful in these acts of service.
Man has four stages: childhood, youth, adolescence and old age. In childhood we know nothing. In youth all sorts of needless things keep getting in. At that very time we must be most careful. We must make the discrimination between good and bad with care. We have built a house. We have put a door in the house. We need air. To let the air in, we have put in windows. But what is the inner meaning of putting in this door and these windows? This door is for us to go out and come in, and for the relatives who belong to our house to come and go. We must use it for this. Just because there is a door, will we let in all the pigs and donkeys that roam the bazaar! To this sacred mansion called our body, we have first of all set the five senses as doors. Only good must be brought in through these five doors. The eyes must see only good. Only good must be taken in through this nose. Tasty foods, and words that please others, must be let in through this door. The skin. This is the fifth sense. We must not touch a body filled, through bad company, with the bad qualities and bad conduct of others. You know about electricity. If someone goes and catches hold of it, a lakh of people holding on to him get a shock. So if we take into our company one full of evil feelings, evil qualities and evil conduct, all of it creeps in. There is a great power in our body. This power passes into everyone. That is why evil thoughts begin in us through bad company. tell me your company, i shall tell you what you are. “Tell me about your friend, and I can tell what kind of man you are,” he said. If your friend is good, you too are good. If your friend is bad, you too are bad. You must keep very far away from bad company. Many people keep what they call upavāsa. What is this upavāsa? Upa..vāsa. Upa: near. Vāsa: dwelling. Near what must we dwell? Its inner meanings in spirituality are endless. But no one inquires into these inner meanings. None of our elders teaches them. So the young know nothing at all of these matters. Upa: near. Near whom? What is good? The good is divinity itself. Upaniṣad means: upa, near; ni, below; ṣad, sit. “Sit near, below”: that is the meaning of Upaniṣad. Why must one sit below? You must grasp the inner meaning well. One who knows nothing must be below. One who knows must be above. That is, elders must be at a high level. The young must be at a somewhat lower level. To bring out this inner meaning: the one who asks the question is the disciple, the one who gives the answer is the guru. So the guru must be in the guru's place. The disciple must be in the disciple's place. You are the one who learns, so you sit below. I am the one who teaches, so I will sit above. Above and below do not mean on chairs and benches. The one at the higher level is the guru. The one at the lower level is the disciple. With this very thing in view, they called it upa ni ṣad. What fruit do we gain by being near? There is an air-conditioned room. If you sit near the air conditioning, the heat that troubles you goes away. It gives you comfort and coolness. In the same way, when you go to a hill station, there are heaters there, and the cold that troubles you goes away. It gives a warmth that brings joy. In the same way, if you are near divinity, the divine quality enters you. That is why upavāsa is being near God, longing to be near Him. When you are near God, bad qualities go far away. The qualities of God enter you. So nearness is the right meaning of upavāsa. As for today's fasts, people think upavāsa is drinking a seer of milk, eating half a dozen bananas, eating iḍlīs, not eating rice. But they eat more than that. The young of today too go into politics and take up vows there. What are those vows? Vows of fasting. For how long? Two hours. All these are laughable words. Things like these are not fasts. We must be near that sacred thing we are to win, that divinity in which we are to find joy. Upavāsa is not for gaining these base, petty, fleeting, impure desires. We must say that even to put these words to such things is a great sin. Nirāhāra dīkṣā. What is āhāra? Is it only eating hour after hour! Is not eating for an hour nirāhāra?