In plain words
They do not heed a good word, though it is told them with the whole heart; a bad word falls on the ear at once. Can such people come to know Me? However much learning they have, what is the use?
Man's condition today runs along in behaviour of this kind. When it comes to seeing good, they have no liking for it at all. They must see only what is bad. When it comes to hearing good, the heart itself is unwilling. When it comes to hearing bad, the whole heart is right there. And as for thinking of good things, they do not even come to mind. Bad things need no calling at all. They come and gather of their own accord. What is the reason? That is how we have been making the habit of our life. The habit must be good. What exists is only one. But it takes multiplicity into itself. Look at this: a garland of flowers. Though the flowers in it are many, the thread is only one. Yesterday it was the very same thread. Today, the same thread. Tomorrow, the same thread. These flowers: a bud yesterday, opening today; tomorrow, withering. The flowers are none other than our bodies. Today youth is like a flower. Later you are an old man. You wither away. In this way bodies keep changing, but the thread within this body never changes. In all three times it stays one. This is what they called the Brahma-sūtra. In everyone there is only the principle of Brahman. It never undergoes any change. But the flowers called jīvas, strung on this thread, keep changing. So we need not grieve in the least over a life that changes. We must make the effort to attain what does not change. This is the very sādhana we must do.
We must set the Buddhi and the Manas given to us in the right state. There is water in this tumbler. At the bottom of this water there is sugar. But when we drink the water on top, there is no taste at all. Put a spoon in, stir it well, and the sugar at the bottom spreads into every part and all the water turns sweet. In the same way, in the vessel called our heart, at the bottom, there is the sugar called Divinity. The whole upper part is filled with worldly things. The worldly things are the water. There is no taste in this water; but put in the spoon called Buddhi and stir with what is called contemplation of God, and the sugar called Divinity at the bottom spreads everywhere.