In plain words
The Paths of Pravṛtti and Nivṛtti
In this way, as we carry out our duties in daily life, some mistakes happen. Mistakes happen that you do not know of. We do not recognise how we must make the mind pure. We do not recognise how far we must make speech pure. Only the body do we make properly pure. That too is only a material state. This is not spiritual. This is not the path of nivṛtti. It is the path of pravṛtti. We enter this path of pravṛtti to some extent. We take this very pravṛtti to be nivṛtti. That is precisely the wrong impression. We are doing the wrong thing. What is bad, we think of as good. What is good, we take to be bad. Today we must try to recognise what is good. We must regard all work that helps others as good. We must believe that whatever concerns the welfare of the world is good. Only when society is well today can you too be well. Where do you belong? You are an individual in society. Your individuality depends on society. If you say, ‘Whatever becomes of society, I must be well,’ how will your well-being come? Only if society is well can you be well as an individual. The welfare of the individual depends on society. The welfare of society depends on the nation. If the nation is to be well, society must be well. What must we recognise today? Your own good, and the good of society. Individual prayer. Social prayer. Between these two, family prayer is most essential. Only when everyone in the family, mother and father, elder and younger sisters, is good does goodness take shape in you too. You too can experience Ānanda. With this very thing in view, the Veda said it in a single word. ‘Lokāssamastā sukhinobhavantu.’ From time without beginning, in the culture of Bhārata, it has gone on sharing and spreading spiritual principles of many kinds to land after land, bringing lasting Śānti and security. This is what all the ṛṣis called Lokāssamastā sukhinobhavantu.