In plain words
The moment you rise at dawn you must remember God, sing His praise and worship Him. You must offer the food to God and only after that eat it. Before it is offered it is ordinary food; once it is offered it takes the form of prasāda. Again at night, when you have eaten and lie down to sleep, you must pray to God. In this way you must strive for purity of mind. Today you are providing the body with many comforts, but for purity of mind you make no effort at all. You are building rest-houses that give the body rest, but temples that give Praśānti to Manas are nowhere to be seen. Where is the rest for Manas? Only when it is offered to God does it get its proper rest. So if you wish to gain Śānti, spend more of your time in the worship of God.
Others may not know, but does not Īśvara know?!
Whatever work you do, whatever word you speak, see that there is no selfishness in it. Give up attachment to the body and foster attachment to your country. Without the country, where would the body come from? You were not born into society by yourselves alone; without society you cannot stand on your own. So while living in society you cannot behave just as you please. If you do not follow the Dharma of society, why stay in society at all?! Go and sit in the forest! You must regard the Dharma of society as dear as your very life. But in the young people of today such a sacred feeling is not seen at all. “This is my wish; I shall conduct myself as my freedom allows. Who is there to question me?” they say. Those who must question will question. Others may not know, but does not Īśvara know? The things you do and the dramas you play may stay hidden from mere men, but they do not stay hidden from God. When the time comes, He Himself will make you stand as the guilty ones. Before such punishment comes, you must enter the right path.
Svadharma and paradharma
What does svecchā mean? Is it wandering about as you please, the way dogs wander? No, no. Sva + icchā = svecchā. That is, the icchā of the Ātma alone is svecchā. In the Bhagavad Gītā both svadharma and paradharma are spoken of. Svadharma means the Dharma of Īśvara; paradharma means the Dharma of the body. You have not come for the sake of the body's Dharma; so follow the Dharma of the Ātma. Only then will your birth be fulfilled. But today, by svadharma, brahmins take it to mean the Dharma of brahmins, vaiśyas the Dharma of vaiśyas, kṣatriyas the Dharma of kṣatriyas, śūdras the Dharma of śūdras: in this way each takes it as it strikes him. All these are the Dharmas of varṇa and āśrama. Kṛṣṇa said to follow svadharma; He did not say to follow the Dharmas of varṇa and āśrama! So what you must follow is the Dharma of the Ātma alone.
The body is the temple of God
Śravaṇaṃ, kīrtanaṃ, viṣṇuḥsmaraṇaṃ, pādasevanaṃ, vandanaṃ, arcanaṃ, dāsyaṃ, snehaṃ, ātmanivedanaṃ: these nine kinds of sādhana belong to the body! Only until we lose this attachment to the body do we need these sādhanas. What, really, is this body? Is there anyone in it? If there is no one to live in it, why do we build a house? Usually, educated or uneducated, when a man sees a big mansion he thinks, ‘This must be some rich man.’