In plain words
Next, fire arose from water. By the time it came to fire, two qualities had dropped away. Smell and taste were gone. The third is air. When it turned into air, it rose up from the earth. Three qualities were gone. Smell, taste and form were gone. Next, space. It stands by sound alone. After that, sound too came to a stop. As long as there were qualities, the earth looked vast and heavy. By the time the qualities came to nothing, Divinity had spread everywhere. Divinity is beyond the qualities. Such Divinity, beyond the qualities, pervades everything.
The modern boys of today ask questions. Where is God? He must come into the hand. There is air all around you. Do you believe that it is there? You cannot help believing it. Without air, how could you be alive? Are you able to see that air? You do not see it. Are you able to catch hold of the air? It is not possible. But you believe that the air is there. He is everywhere; God is not seen by the eye. He does not come into the hand. Yet without Him you are not. Without God you are not. That Divinity is endowed with a power. That is what is called consciousness. It is everywhere. Through what company, through what instruments, through what conduct we come to understand the principle of the jīva: each of these we must first come to know. An illustration.. There is oxygen. There is hydrogen. These two are like fire. If you set fire to them, both burn. The power to burn is in both. For how long? As long as the two stay apart, the power to burn is there. If you combine the two, they become water. With that water you can put out fire. What gives rise to fire and what puts fire out are the same. The two are contained one within the other. In the same way, consciousness is everywhere. It is in man. Consciousness is in all living beings. But these worms, insects and the like, these beasts, birds, wild animals and the like, do not know that this consciousness is in them. Man alone is able to recognise that this consciousness is in him. One who has this power to recognise is the one who has attained Divinity. From this consciousness came conscious. It came by way of the senses. This consciousness, conscience, conscious: all three are principles of the one Ātma. Humanness is made up of these three forms.
The feeling that the body is the self must be given up
First of all we must understand the feeling that the body is the self. Little by little we must give up the feeling that the body is the self. After examining the principle of the mind, we must enter the principle of the Ātma. The mind is not caught so easily. I told you, did I not, that this cloth is a gathering of threads. This itself is the form of the mind. First it takes shape as thoughts. From these thoughts come desires. The gathering of desires turns into the mind. What must we do to make the mind pure? We must reduce desires. If you want to do away with the cloth, you must do away with the threads. Take away the threads, and there is no cloth. Take away desires, and there is no mind. So desires need thoughts. So we must see that we give thoughts no room. Whatever bad thoughts take on, that very form we take on. If the threads are red, it is a red cloth. If the threads are black, it is a black cloth. So if an impure mind has arisen in us, our thoughts are impure. So we must give bad thoughts no opening at all. At such a time, do self enquiry. Is it good or bad? Is it right or wrong? Make this discrimination with a deliberate effort. Your own mind will tell you that what you did is wrong. Your conscience tells you only the truth. When you know it is wrong, why should you enter into it? Do not enter at all into works your mind does not approve of. Enter the path of Satya. You will attain Satya. Our life depends on our action. The human form is the oneness of the two, form and the formless. Now, what is form? There is a block of ice. It appears with a form. The block of ice that is form is held in the water that is formless. Without the water that is formless, there is no block of ice that is form. We must develop the evenness of mind that form and the formless are both one. By that we shall attain Nirvāṇa.