In plain words
‘Śreyohi jñānamabhyāsāt’: we must put sādhana into practice. Through this sādhana we must develop dhyāna. How long is this dhyāna? As for dhyāna, we must do dhyāna until Jñāna dawns. Once Jñāna has come, dhyāna is not needed. This Jñāna alone is the root cause of Śānti. So when we want to attain this right state, Prema alone is the root cause of everything. Man today does not have a steady mind even for a moment.
What is yoga? ‘Cittavṛtti nirodhakaḥ’: this itself is Patañjali's yoga. How will you restrain the movements of the citta? That is not possible. Because that is natural to the citta. Even if you pour water on a hill, it runs down. Even if you light a fire in a pit, it rises only upward. So the nature of fire is simply to rise up, to a high level. The nature of water is simply to go down to the lower part. So our worldly desires are all just like water. Wherever you put it, it only ever goes down. But that is negative. What is positive is Jñāna. Even if you put it in a pit, it keeps rising.
If we understand this principle well, we need not go along a mad path and waste our time. Now, I said that whatever is lost, we can gain it back. If wealth is lost, we can gain it back. If land is lost, we can gain it back. If a friend is lost, we can gain one back. If a wife is lost, we can gain one back. But if the body is lost, we cannot gain it back. But what is this body for? We need this body in order to reach God. So until we reach Him, we must protect it. If we give up sleep and food and do some sādhanas or other, calling them sādhanas, the body wastes away. ‘Bhikṣānnaṃ deharakṣārthaṃ’, ‘vastraṃ śītanivāraṇaṃ’. We must take food that suits the season. We must wear clothes that suit the weather. What are these two for? Only to protect the body, only to experience divinity.