In plain words
Many things are happening in the world, things not fit to hear or to see. We think evil is happening. When you think something is evil, see that that evil is not in you. Whatever you think is good when someone does it, do it yourself and show it. The power to decide good and evil is in you, is it not? If that power to decide were not in you, how could you say this is good and that is evil? That power of enquiry is in you. You enquire into everything. You do not enquire into yourself. You must enquire into yourself. That is the inner meaning of spirituality. Whatever great soul you go to: ‘Know yourself, my child! Know who you are!’, he teaches. But people forget it. To everyone they see: ‘Who are you, sir? Where have you come from?’, they ask. When you do not know who you are or where you have come from, what use is it to know where he has come from? First of all: ‘Who am I? Where have I come from?’: enquire into that. This is what Śaṅkarācārya kept teaching. A man was studying grammar: ‘ḍukṛñ karaṇe’. He went up to him. ‘My boy! What are you studying?’ he asked. ‘I am studying Pāṇini's grammar,’ that man said. ‘What result will you gain from this grammar?’ Śaṅkarācārya asked again. To that, the other man replied, ‘I shall become a great scholar of grammar.’ ‘What result comes from becoming a scholar?’ he asked again. ‘I shall join the royal courts. I shall receive honours and great rewards,’ that man said. ‘You will receive them; what result comes from those rewards?’ ‘I and my children will live happily in my family.’ ‘How long will you live?’ ‘I shall live till I die.’ ‘What result will come after death?’ ‘That I do not know,’ he said. All he knew was living as long as he was alive. Then Śaṅkarācārya said:
Worship Govinda, worship Govinda, worship Govinda, O fool! When the appointed time draws near, ‘ḍukṛñ karaṇe’ will not save you, will not save you.