In plain words
Embodiments of Prema! Jñāna does not mean acquaintance with books; it does not mean knowing worldly matters. True Jñāna is to recognise the oneness that lies between the individual and the whole. Only he who has recognised the oneness of jīva and Īśvara is truly a knower. When man cannot recognise even the humanness within him, how then can he recognise the divinity within him? So, first of all, he must recognise the humanness within him. With this very aim the Buddha taught that, first of all, we must cultivate samyak dṛṣṭi. Because we have eyes, we must not look at everyone; we must not look at everything. All the sights we see stay fixed within us. By looking at impure sights, many faults and sins enter into us. So we must look only at pure sights. We must behold only that which gives satisfaction to the inner Ātma. Only when we have cultivated such samyak dṛṣṭi do samyak saṅkalpas arise in us. The third is samyak vāk. Without blaming others, without hurting others, without speaking Asatya, we must make the tongue pure. What is the tongue there for? Is it for eating tasty things? Is it for slandering others? No, no, no. The tongue is very sweet, worthy of honour and sacred. So what is the work such a tongue must do? Govinda! Dāmodara! Mādhava! This is what it must utter. For this alone the tongue has been given to us. But some will talk to every single person they come across! Whoever falls into their hands, they just talk to him! What a bad thing this is! How much divine energy goes to waste in talking needlessly with others!
The fourth is samyak śruti. If we listen to impure things, only impure saṅkalpas arise in us. So we must listen only to pure things. Along with these four, we must also practise samyak karma. The sixth is samyak jīvana. We must not waste life on worldly cravings for the objects of the senses. We must keep to conduct that sets an ideal. The seventh is samyak sādhana. Japa, dhyāna, bhajan and the like are good deeds, but they are not sādhanas. To drive away bad feelings and to nourish good ones: that is the right sādhana. Through samyak sādhana the qualities of humanness grow in us. Only after this is samyak samādhi attained. Sama-dhī: that is to say, samādhi is to have a Buddhi that stays even. To look upon pleasure and pain, blame and praise, darkness and light, gain and loss alike: that is samādhi. Such a feeling of oneness is itself Nirvāṇa.