In plain words
Embodiments of Prema!
A loving word brings people the greatest joy. There is no shortage of such loving words. Every person must offer loving words to the world.
Subtler than the atom, it shines; vaster than the vast, it appears; the atom dwells in the vast, the vast dwells as the atom; the atom is the Ātma, the Ātma dwells as the atom.
The whole universe, the whole world of moving and unmoving things that the eye can see, is the form of the atom itself. The water we drink, the air we breathe, the sound we hear: all of it is the form of the atom. The five elements exist as the form of the atom. The world is the form of these five elements. That is why the ancients recognised the world itself as the form of God. Without researching the atom, in this endless time, on a certain day of researching atomic energy, the people of Bhārata experienced the spiritual principle in the right way and, at one time, worshipped the earth. Because the five elements are blended in the earth, they prayed to it as Bhūdevī. Second, as Gaṅgādevī, they believed in water too as a deity. Third is the Fire God. Fourth is the Wind God. Fifth is Śabdabrahman. The people of Bhārata believed in these five elements as the form of God and worshipped them. People who could not recognise so broad a principle looked on the worship of Bhārata as a joke. Every atom has a form. So nowhere in the world do we find anything that is not a form. This form is the form of God. They went on criticising idol worship as wrong. They could not explain what is not an idol. All they did was mock idol worship as a foolish custom and a blind belief; but no one could recognise what is not idol worship. For every person, all things first of all took on a form. Man could not recognise the even mind, the even feeling, the oneness that knows God is not in some one place, not only in one person, but everywhere. Men of learning went on discovering that atomic energy pervades everything. It took 1700 years to learn that atomic energy is blended in all beings. But long before this the boy Prahlāda recognised this truth very well.
That He is here and not there: have no such doubt; the Wielder of the Discus is everywhere; wherever you search for Him, there, there He is, hear this, chief of the demons.
So he said. But today the wise, the scientists and the Vedāntins too have come to believe this truth the boy spoke long ago: that the atomic energy present everywhere is the divine power of the Ātma. This is a mike. We point it out with a finger. Once you have seen the mike, you have no need of the finger. This is a flower. We point it out with a finger. Once you have seen the flower, you have no need of the finger. We point and say, "That is a camera." Once you have seen the camera, the finger has no work to do. In the same way, idols began so that we might see God. We point with a finger to the moon we cannot reach, as though it were on top of that tree. Where is the tree? Where is the moon? Only with the help of the finger are we able to see the moon. In the same way, until we see God, idols are essential. Once we have seen God, idols are not needed. Everything is God alone. To an unmarried girl: "Child! What will your husband-to-be be like?" If you ask her this, what answer can she give? She does not know who her husband is. When she does not know, she cannot tell you that he will be like this or like that. After the marriage she can describe her husband's form and name very well. In the same way, only after we have worshipped God, only after we have offered ourselves, only after we have experienced Him, can we say that He is like this or like that. Before we believe, before we worship, before we offer ourselves, who can say that God is like this or like that! That is why we must develop faith in the worship of images. For everything is the form of an image. Even the smallest particle is the form of an image. Even atoms have a shape. There is nothing in the world without a shape. Many people ask, "Is it not foolishness to worship this inert idol, with no consciousness and no life?" But these are words spoken out of ignorance, by those who do not know this. Today 900 million people of Bhārata raise the national flag, which stirs their spirit.