In plain words
I knew, but to have him tell it, I asked, ‘What is your situation?’ A boy of seventeen. What is the reason for this boy to have such sadness, such sorrow? I do not know what sorrow is. But I asked, ‘Why are you grieving?’ The boy says, ‘Swami! My second wife has left me and gone. Not only that. She has a child. I have a great attachment to that child. She has taken the child away too.’ At seventeen, a second wife. By twenty there will be a fourth wife. They will carry him away when this fellow dies. This is how life is in the world.
Inquiry into the principle of the Ātma
The man of today does not understand what humanness means. Man means one who has worth. One worthy of honour. This sacredness comes from the Latin word ‘vir’. ‘Vir’ means sacredness. The Upaniṣads taught that man is sacred, that he is trustworthy. What is the reason that such a trustworthy man, such a man of worth, has become so powerless? The reason is only that he cannot recognise his own nature. Who am I? I am a man. How sacred humanness is! How divine! How splendid! How new! That is precisely why it was called mā..nava. Mā..not; nava..new. Not one who is new. I am the ancient one. I am the eternal one. The body changes, but I do not change. Humanness, so divine, we regard as something so low.
Young women and young men! Through man's food and pastimes, many kinds of misconceptions arise. We must give no room at all to thoughts. Whatever thoughts come: is it good or bad? is it right or wrong? Inquire into this to some extent. For this very purpose man has five kinds of knowledge. One is bookish knowledge, the second superficial knowledge, the third discrimination knowledge, the fourth general knowledge, and the fifth is practical knowledge. Without this practical knowledge, holding on to this bookish knowledge and superficial knowledge, we are only wasting our lives. There is no connection at all between the studies we study and the conduct we live by. Who is man? Thoughts, words, deeds: all three must come together. Only then does humanness turn into divinity. For everything, we must strengthen our faith in God. In that faith there is no room at all for such doubts. If doubts come up from you, that is your imagination, psychological. It is not the nature of God. All the feelings you feel are your own reflections only, not the reflection of divinity. In everything there is your reflection, your reaction, your resound. Divinity has no such reflection. No such reaction. No resound. only one sound. That alone is TRUTH. Divinity, which is Satya, knows no change. We must believe in such divinity, Satya itself in form. Today in the world no one is able to understand what God means. They are unable to understand what morality and honesty mean. On the day people believe in morality and honesty and follow the right path of Dharma, on that very day the country will prosper. The whole life of the man of today is money, money. He becomes a slave to money, but he does not become a slave to virtue. He forgets God, but he does not forget money. Money alone will do. What will money do? All this may give comforts for a passing life. I must show you a very strange picture of humanness. We have put a ceiling fan in the bedroom. We have put in air condition. We have laid a Dunlop bed. You have lain down. But sleep does not come. What did you put in this air condition for? You put it in for a happy sleep. What did you put up the ceiling fan for? You put it up so that peaceful sleep would come. Why did you lay the Dunlop bed? You laid it only for sleep. But sleep does not come. With all these, what is the use?
The Prema of the Paramātma is a triangle
In the same way, these five, the body, Manas, Buddhi, citta and Ahaṅkāra, came to every man for gaining the happy sleep called Śānti. When Śānti is given, why the body? Why Manas? Why Buddhi? All these together must give you Śānti. But they give unrest. These were not made for unrest. These senses were made for Śānti. Every person must recognise this truth. When will these enter the right path? Only when you share pure, selfless Prema do they give Śānti.