In plain words
Embodiments of the Prema-Ātma!
As long as a man lives with Ahaṅkāra, people never love him; in the end even his wife and children do not love him. Only when he gives up Ahaṅkāra does man become worthy of universal Prema. As long as there is anger, sorrow does not leave man. As long as there are desires, Śrī Lakṣmī does not come near man. As long as there is so much greed, man cannot enjoy happiness. Through greed alone Duryodhana, Duśśāsana and the rest were parted from all their riches. As long as a tumbler is full of water, there is no room to pour milk into it. Only when you pour the water away is there room to pour milk into it. In the same way, we must first of all rid ourselves of the bad qualities that fill our heads. Only then is there room to take good qualities into ourselves.
The sun that shines in the sky is reflected alike in a gold vessel, a silver vessel, a brass vessel and a clay vessel filled with water on the earth. Gold, silver, brass and clay each have their own value, but the reflection of the sun seen in the water of those vessels has one and the same value! In each vessel a sun appears, but there is only one sun, is there not? Just as the one sun seems a separate sun to each of all the worlds, so the one God appears in each heart, according to the feeling held there, in various forms, Rāma, Kṛṣṇa, Govinda, Nārāyaṇa, Sai and the rest. Names and forms differ, but God is one. Every individual must recognise this truth and live by it. “Ekoʼhaṃ bahusyām.” The One alone appears as the many. The cause of this manyness is nothing but delusion over the upādhis.
The human body is like a car. Just as a car has four wheels, human life has the four puruṣārthas, Dharma, artha, kāma and Mokṣa, as its four tyres. Merely having tyres is not enough; there must be air in them, must there not? That is faith. Only when the tyres called the puruṣārthas are well filled with the air called faith can the car called the body go forward. But the tyres turn just as the steering inside turns, do they not? That steering is Manas. For the car to start, the switch is very important. That is Buddhi. Our stomach is the petrol tank. The food we eat is the petrol. Seated in this car called the body, God, the Ātma, is driving. Only when we take such an Ātma as our support shall we reach in comfort the place we have to reach.
In a certain village, for a water supply, they sank a bore well and built a big tank. They laid pipes to that tank. They invited a minister to open the water supply. For the opening they fitted a fine golden tap, and under it they set a fine silver vessel. They garlanded the minister. To perform the opening, he went up to the tap and turned it. But no water came! What was the reason? No connection had been made between that tap and the tank! In the same way, we do nāmasmaraṇa with the mouth and keep time with the hands. But we make no connection between the heart and the Ātma.