In plain words
Though he has recited the Vedas and Vedāṅgas over and over, though he can compose verse and prose, if he lacks purity of mind, he will come to ruin: this word of Sai is a word that tells the truth!
Embodiments of Prema! However many kinds of worldly learning one acquires, without purity of mind not even an atom of the principle of the Ātma is understood. However great a scholar one may be, if he shuts his eyes he cannot see his own body. Even one who has learnt nothing at all can see his own body if he opens his eyes and looks, and can take note of his surroundings too. Like fire covered over by ash, man, because he is bound by Māyā, is unable to recognise his own true nature. First, the close bond and kinship between humanness and divinity must be recognised. When one enters the spiritual path and tries, with purity of mind, to recognise divinity, any power, however great, can be brought within one's grasp.
Sādhana does not mean merely performing good acts such as japa, dhyāna and pūjās. True sādhana is to strive to remove the curtain of Māyā that stands in the way of the antaḥkaraṇa. The moment the ash is blown away, the fire is seen. The moment the moss is cleared away, pure water comes into view. If the cataract covering the eye is removed, the world is seen very clearly. In the same way, if you cross the curtain of Māyā and go beyond it, nothing is seen but divinity alone.
Only so long as you stand on this side of the mind are this body, this world, these sorrows and joys seen. Man today tries to see divinity while holding the mind up as a screen before him. If you want to see divinity, you must recognise the principle of the Ātma. The Ātma is without form. So, until he gives up the delusion that he is the body, man does not understand what the Ātma is. Every man uses the word ‘I’, does he not!