In plain words
‘You look at it first,’ he said. Then he told him to make the sugar dissolve well in the water. Naciketa stirred the sugar in his hand round and round in the water and made it dissolve. After that Uddālaka said, ‘Naciketa! Now see where the sugar is.’ Naciketa opened his eyes wide and looked. The sugar could not be seen. ‘Put your hand in and take it,’ said the father. When he put his hand in, it did not come into his hand. ‘Father! It does not come into my hand. It cannot be seen by the eye,’ he said. Then Uddālaka spoke. ‘You yourself brought the sugar, did you not! With your own hand you mixed it into this water, did you not! Yet now it does not come into your hand. It cannot be seen by the eye. Look and see where it is,’ he said. ‘I do not know,’ said Naciketa. He told him to put two drops of the water on his tongue. Putting them on his tongue, he said, ‘Father! There is sugar in this water.’ ‘Is this sugar at the bottom, or at the top, or all around?’ asked Uddālaka. ‘It is everywhere,’ he said. This is oneness. Putting the sweetness called Divinity into the great vessel called the world, every man must dissolve it well through the daily actions he performs, and experience Divinity. This is sādhana. How can you see the Divinity that pervades everywhere in the vessel called the world? He is not caught by the hand; He is not seen by the eye. He is attained only through experience. The sweetness in this vessel is at the bottom, it is all around, it is at the top. It is on all four sides. That is, the vessel is wholly filled with this sweetness itself.
The sweetness called Divinity pervades everywhere
Students! You must recognise this well. In the same way, this Divinity that is sweetness pervades everywhere in humanness. So every work you do must be sweet. Every look you give must be a sweet one. Every word you speak must ever be sweet. In this way, through whichever sense it comes, it must be sweet and nothing else.