In plain words
What is this, that one such as you should wander about begging alms?” he lamented, deeply hurt. Then the Buddha: “Sir! You are not the father, I am not the son. We are both embodiments of Brahman. But in the worldly way, you are an emperor and I am one who is detached. Yours is attachment; Mine is detachment. Attachment is the great disease; detachment is Nirvāṇa,” He answered, straight to the point.
“I go for refuge to the Buddha; I go for refuge to the Dharma; I go for refuge to the Saṅgha.”
What is its inner meaning? First of all we must set our Buddhi on the path of Dharma. Next we must bring Dharma into society. Only when we set the Buddhi in Dharma and Dharma in society does life reach its fulfilment. We are members of society. So only when society is set right can we too be set right. “Hands in the society, head in the forest”: that is, the hands must be absorbed in the service of society and the head in spiritual contemplation.
The Buddha did not accept worldly sādhanas. All these are marks of pravṛtti. His heart had entered into the principle of nivṛtti. He made no mention of a single god or a single śāstra. He inquired into what yajña is, and recognised that sacrifice itself is the true yajña. “Tyāgenaike amṛtatva mānaśuḥ”: only when we sacrifice can we rise to a higher state. When we swim, do we not move forward only by pushing back the water ahead of us! In the same way, only when we sacrifice can we go forward in yoga. That itself is Nirvāṇa. For this, Prema is the chief thing. Without Prema we can achieve nothing.
In every yuga the Avatāras have shown forth many ideals. Today we celebrate the birthdays of the Avatāras, but we do not practise what they taught. Taking Satya and Dharma as His very basis, the Buddha went on with His preaching and teaching. The Buddha's message spread in countries such as Tibet, China, Burma and Japan. But after the Buddha, quarrels broke out among His followers, and so Buddhism declined to some extent. Believing in physical life alone, they forgot the Buddha's true words. It is not enough merely to recite the lives of the Avatāras. We must put into practice at least some one or two things from them. However many days go by, you go on growing worldly Prema; you are not growing the Prema that belongs to God. Step by step you must enter into Vairāgya. You must read books. Reading alone is not enough; you must learn the meaning. Knowing the meaning alone is not enough; you must reflect on it. Reflecting alone is not enough; you must put it into practice. A life that does not remember God is no life; a life without morality and integrity is no life. Morality and integrity are themselves the steps to Nirvāṇa.