In plain words
Speak words that please others. “Govinda! Dāmodara! Mādhava!”: utter the Name of God this way. “Talk less, Work more,” it has been said. You should talk less. You should do more work. The less you talk, the purer your heart becomes.
To root out the faults of the senses, you must think of God. Man today has let his senses loose to do as they please. That is why he goes through untold troubles. The very first sādhana he must do is to restrain his senses. Eat food to satisfy hunger. Do not eat beyond measure. Fill one part of the stomach with food and one part with water. Leave the remaining part empty. But man today eats up to his throat. He fills his belly so that, once seated, he cannot even get up. That is why he falls ill with indigestion. Keep your eating within a limit. But Prema you must not keep under control. Prema has nothing to do with the senses. Love everyone in the broad feeling, “All are mine, it is my own life that is in everyone.”
Influence and nature
Newspaper by its nature has no smell of any kind. But wrap pakoḍās in it and it takes on the smell of pakoḍās; wrap dried fish in it and it gives off a stench; wrap jasmine flowers in it and it spreads a fragrance. In the same way your heart too is like clean paper. Whatever feelings you put into your heart, those are the smells that will come out of you. So take in good feelings. Then this sway of the Kali age cannot move you in the least. Whatever the sway of the Kali age, you must hold on to the feeling of the Ātma. The feeling of the Ātma is your true nature. But you fall under the sway of the Kali age and forget your true nature. Today humanness has withered away in man. The practice of Dharma has dwindled.