Passage 11

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In plain words

So the words you speak must belong to the heart. After samyak dṛṣṭi, samyak vāk. Then samyak śravaṇam.

We must set the citta in the nine paths of Bhakti

Our ears are listening. Now, at every turn, we are listening only to thoughts of others. We are not setting our mind on any thought of God, on any contemplation of God, on anything of that kind. So set it in the ninefold path. What are they? Śravaṇam, kīrtanam, Viṣṇusmaraṇam, pādasevanam, vandanam, arcanam, dāsyam, sneham, ātmanivedanam. Enter at least one path of Bhakti among these nine paths. This is the one principle of our śravaṇam. Not only that: we must not listen at all to others' troubles, others' losses, others' sorrows. If you see your fellows suffering, help them with Prema; there is nothing wrong in that. But do not take all their cares into our heart. The heart is very subtle. Whatever we speak, whatever we see, whatever we hear, all of it keeps getting printed in the heart. All this printed matter keeps playing back to us now and then, like a record. So we must give this bad matter no room at all in our heart.

A right change in the heart is itself the new year

So the thing to know especially today is this: New Year, the new year, Viṣu. What we must know is: how many crores of years have come? So many Viṣus have come and gone. How far has our heart changed? Though we have celebrated so many Viṣus, and so many new years have gone by, our heart stays just where it was. So first of all, at every Viṣu and every New Year, you must change our heart into a sacred one.