Passage 7

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In plain words

Look at his age: at this time of life he has not the strength to travel so much. Yet out of Bhakti, faith and surrender he himself takes up work like this. That divine power alone goes on giving his body so much strength. Every man must enter such a sacred path and come close to God. If we are to come close to God, we must enter into the work that has to do with His Prema. In the culture of Bhārata, ‘Satyaṃ vada’ and ‘Dharmaṃ cara’ are the root principles. We must never stray from Satya and never leave Dharma. Whatever work we do, it must stand in close relation to Satya and to Dharma. In the householder's life man has four kinds of puruṣārthas: Dharma, artha, kāma and Mokṣa. Of the four puruṣārthas, the very first is Dharma. That Dharma itself is the foot. The whole body rests on Dharma alone. Without the foot the body cannot stand. Artha is what is joined to that Dharma. The belly itself is kāma. Whatever work we do, we do it to feed the belly. The belly depends on the strength of the arms. The strength of the arms is itself the kṣatriya's nature. So Dharma, artha, kāma and Mokṣa rest on Dharma alone. Today people cast off Dharma and forget Mokṣa. They live holding on to artha and kāma alone. What use is it to have artha and kāma? The feet called Dharma and the head called Mokṣa are most essential. That, they said, is the principle of Brahman. ‘Brāhmaṇosya mukham āsīt’: in the body, the brahmin nature is our face itself. That is the principle of Brahman. The head, the seat of Brahman, is the root of Mokṣa. The feet go with Dharma. Taking refuge in Dharma, weighing artha and kāma against Dharma, we must reach through them the goal called Mokṣa. Mokṣa is not somewhere far off. ‘The ending of moha is itself Mokṣa.’ We must try to reduce moha as far as we can. What kind of moha should come? Moha for God must come to us. We must long for God. All actions done in longing for God become actions for God's pleasure alone. So we must do our pūjās in this feeling, and not think it is enough to do pūjā to the feet in some artificial way.