Passage 9

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In plain words

What is Dharma? Man thinks Mokṣa is gained after death. We gain Mokṣa in every single moment. We need not wait until we die. What is Mokṣa? The destruction of moha is itself Mokṣa. Give up moha; that itself is Mokṣa. But today man is sinking in moha. Children, wife, sons and daughters-in-law: all these are objects of moha, are they not? Look after them. This is a duty, but you must not pour all the delusion into it. What is Dharma? Which is Dharma? "This is the dharma of the householder, this the dharma of the forest-dweller, the dharma of the renunciant, the dharma of the brahmacārī": dividing it into parts, people fall prey to much suffering. That is not Dharma. The proper study of mankind is man: that itself is Dharma. Our thoughts, our words, our deeds, the three, must become one. By this oneness of the three, what work are we doing? We are doing no work at all. People say, "I am doing my dharma." Is giving alms Dharma? This is not Dharma. Make charity of the feeling within you. Sacrifice your feeling. Sacrifice your words. Sacrifice your body. What is the body for? Karmānubandhīni manuṣyaloke. He said: give the mind, and do karma with the body. This body is the path of karma. This mind is the path of Bhakti. The form in which these two are joined is itself the path of Jñāna. Jñāna does not mean reading books. The vision of advaita is Jñāna. To know that there is no second: that itself is Jñāna. If he asks, "O God, I must gain Jñāna, I must become a jñānī," when will he become a jñānī? For this Jñāna he reads ever so many books. The one who reads these books is ignorant. He is not a true jñānī. A jñānī must read the books within himself; is he to read books outside? All this is bookish knowledge, superficial knowledge. Not practical knowledge. Practical knowledge: open the book of your heart within and look. Find out in what way your feelings stand there. "Am I holding good feelings, or bad feelings?" Master the mind. Be a master mind. Instead of doing that, you think "my mind, my Buddhi", sink in this alone, and in the end forget your true nature.