In plain words
If man too journeys only as far as these three, what is the use of his having the vijñānamaya and ānandamaya kośas within him?! But man today does not enter even the vijñānamaya kośa. Some one in a hundred, one in a crore, enters the vijñānamaya kośa. Beyond it lies the ānandamaya kośa. But until now no one has found it; no one has reached that level. Our journey must carry on as far as the ānandamaya kośa. If we get off at the stations in between, we shall meet with many accidents and hardships.
“From the unreal lead me to the Real; from darkness lead me to light; from death lead me to immortality.”
We must pass from ‘Asat’ into ‘Sat’. We must journey from darkness into light. From death we must reach immortality. Only then do we find Śānti. But the chief precepts to keep for this are four.
“Give up the company of the wicked; seek the company of the good; do meritorious deeds day and night; remember always what does not last.”
The first: “Tyaja durjana saṃsargaṃ”. We must stay far from the company of the wicked. Karṇa, a man of great learning, of virtue and of strength, by keeping company with Duryodhana, Duśśāsana and the rest, became one of the wicked four and fell into ill fame. Even a venomous creature like a snake bites only once, but if you go near a wicked man, he goes on biting you every moment. Not only wicked people: we must see that wicked feelings too do not come near us. This is the first step on the spiritual path.
The second: “Bhaja sādhu samāgamaṃ”: once we have put away bad company, we must enter satsaṅga. What, after all, is satsaṅga? Today in this world people think satsaṅga means making friends with devotees, …. That is not what satsaṅga means. Sat means that which is eternal, that which does not change. That is divinity. With such divinity we must make friends.
The third: “Kurupuṇya mahorātraṃ”: day and night we must engage in meritorious deeds. What do you think merit is? “Paropakāraḥ puṇyāya pāpāya parapīḍanaṃ,” said Vyāsa. Paropakāra is merit. Parapīḍana is sin. Then what is paropakāra? Doing good to others, giving in charity: you think all these belong to paropakāra. This is not paropakāra. It looks like paropakāra only in the eyes of the outer world. But if you inquire into its inner meaning, para means God, upa means near, and kāra means reaching. So to reach close to God is paropakāra. This itself is merit. Without doing this, to give someone a little food, to give away saris and dhotis by the hundred: that much alone is not paropakāra. You may give these accounts to the income tax officer if you like, but you cannot give them to God. In God's eyes, paropakāra means going close to God! Then: “Pāpāya parapīḍanaṃ”. What is sin? To see as many the divinity that is one: that is sin. God is one. Anyone may give Him whatever name he likes. Clever people who divide this oneness into many are growing in number, but not one virtuous man is to be seen who believes the many to be one.