In plain words
If you pour this white water into a black bottle, it looks black. If you pour the same water into a white bottle, it looks white. In the same way, this learning and wealth are just like pure water. If you put them into a sāttvic heart, they look pure. If you put them into a heart given to rajoguṇa, it looks red. But this red colour is not the water's; it is the bottle's colour. If you pour this same water into a black bottle, it is tamoguṇa. It looks black. This black is not the water's. It is the bottle's. So this white, red and black too are only the feelings of man's mind; they are not a fault of sacred learning, nor a fault of wealth. In this way man cannot recognise the truth of what the right path is. He says, ‘That fellow is bad, this fellow is good.’ He criticises, saying, ‘This is bad, that is good.’ This good and bad are only the effects of your own mind; they are not the effect of the people outside.
When the vision is pure, all creation looks pure
So what is it that we must change today? We must change our vision. If the vision is pure, all creation looks pure. So first of all we must change our vision. We must make the heart pure. Through sādhanas of this kind it becomes possible to see the unity that is in diversity. But in some places still, people are falling into wrong paths through one sādhana or another. A letter has come from this conference. Men are living with ever so many doubts. Where have all these doubts come from? Truly, the root cause of these doubts is only the lack of full faith. For one who has full faith in God there is no room at all for doubts to come. That is just why Peter, a fisherman, was full of faith when he met Jesus. But one man alone doubted everything. Him they called Doubting Thomas. It is Doubting Thomas who has room for doubts and questions of this kind. But on the path of sādhana, doubts do come naturally. When faith in God becomes full, doubts are scattered to pieces.