In plain words
Senses, conscious, consciousness
That Ātma itself they call ‘conscience’. But ‘conscience’ is just what is limited to this body. But the divine awareness that is everywhere has been called consciousness. Consciousness is everywhere. Taking a drop, as it were, from this, they joined to it, from those, what is called ‘conscious’. But from this consciousness, the conscious. That itself is the senses. So first, when we purify the five senses, this conscious too becomes pure. When this conscious becomes pure, it merges in consciousness. The sādhana the Buddha taught was just like that. He went on restraining his ‘senses’. He went on setting them on the sacred path. He developed new feelings, divine and splendid. Through that alone his heart became pure. As soon as his heart became pure, he attained nirvāṇa. So all the sādhanas we do are just good karmas. Dhyāna is only a good karma. Japa is only a good karma. Tapas is only a good karma. Reflection is only a good karma. Yoga is only a good karma. Sacrifice is only a good karma. All these are only good karmas, but they are not the chief thing for Mokṣa. The chief thing for Mokṣa is the heart alone. That is why Nammāzhvār said: ‘Cittaśuddhi ōruganai pūja sētu nēmi.’ “I do pūjā with my purity of citta,” he said. We must grow broad feelings in ourselves. There must be no narrow feelings. Expansion of Love not contraction of Love.
The ideal of Māṇikya Vācakar
Once, some people were walking in the bazaar. The rain began to pour down heavily. He could find no shelter anywhere. There was a small house, and it had a small veranda. The people of the house had shut the door. They had left only the veranda. He went onto that veranda and sat down with his legs stretched out a little, poor man. From there, people going along in the rain looked on. At once another person came. “Sir! Lord! You too, come onto the veranda and escape the rain,” he said. “You are lying down,” he said. “Sir! I shall sit. Let the two of us sit together,” he said. A little while later another person came, getting soaked.