In plain words
Without reaching the goal that has to be reached, without making the efforts that have to be made, if God is to fall into your hands, how will He fall into them? The foot must not cross the threshold, not a coin must be spent, and Kaivalya must come and drop into the lap. This is the influence of the Kali age. Man does not exert himself and work at all. We have the right to karma alone. Why? ‘Karmānubandhīni manuṣyaloke.’ ‘Śarīramādyaṃ khalu dharmasādhakaṃ’: we must do work. But we do not step forward at all to do work. Then how will the result come?
Men want the fruit of merit, but they do not want merit; they do not want the fruit of sin, yet they commit sin with effort.
‘We must have merit, we must have it,’ we long. But are we doing meritorious deeds? Without doing meritorious deeds, how will the fruit of merit come? We say we do not want the fruit of sin. But are we keeping from sinful acts? You step forward into sinful acts. Whatever you think you do not want, you must keep from doing it.
First of all we must build up the faith, ‘I am not a beast; I am a man’
Today fickleness in humanness has gone past all bounds. This is not right. This is the mark of a beast, not the mark of a man. Satya, Prema, forbearance, sympathy, tyāga: these are the qualities of humanness. Lust, anger, greed, delusion, pride, envy, jealousy: all these are the marks of a beast. First of all we must build up the faith, ‘I am not a beast; I am a man.’ Even if you perform no pūjās, observe no vratas, go for no darśans, if you keep sacred feelings in your heart, that itself is very great. Help as far as you are able. That is enough. This is japa, this is tapas, this is everything. If, without taking part in sacred works that help others, we turn the japa beads saying ‘Rām’, ‘Rām’, we shall only have wasted our time. What was the great deed Rāma did? Keeping to the word of Satya. To follow Satya was Rāma's chief aim. Keeping His father's word was Rāma's chief aim.