In plain words
You could truly say that there is no one in this world who has not seen films. Now, when we enter this cinema hall, there is a white curtain (screen) before our eyes. Seeing it, you are not satisfied. After a while the film starts. From the projector all the pictures keep falling on the screen. These pictures fall on the curtain with action, with dance. When these pictures fall, where is this screen? Without the screen, would the pictures be visible to us? You could not see them. That screen alone makes all the pictures visible. And when these pictures come, that screen is present in these pictures too. When there are no pictures, it is there. When the pictures come, it is there. After they are over, it is there. In the Veda they said this very thing: “Antarbahiśca tatsarvaṃ vyāpya nārāyaṇa sthitaḥ.” In these pictures, this white curtain called the Ātma lies hidden within. This screen alone is the foundation of all the pictures. Without the screen the pictures do not appear. In the pictures, too, the screen lies merged. So they said, “Sarvaṃviṣṇumayaṃ jagat.” This divinity is in the pictures. This divinity is behind the pictures. Who can fix a form for it? On this screen called the Ātma, what we call the world keeps appearing to us. On this very screen called Prema, the world we call the universe comes into view.
If It Is Everywhere, Why Is the Ātma Not Seen?
This very Prema lies merged in every man in the form called the Ātma. What form can you fix for the Prema that is in you? That is not possible. So, first of all, one must try to recognise oneself. This form of the Ātma has no one name, no form. God has many names, many forms. You yourselves sing, ‘Ek prabhū ko anek nām.’ But the principle at the root of everything is the Ātma alone. The Ātma is pure, it is steady, it is selfless. In that pure Ātma alone this whole world appears clearly. If the whole universe appears to us today, there must be some one thing that is its support. That very support is the form of the Ātma.