Passage 1

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In plain words

Not merit, not sin, not pleasure, not sorrow; not mantra, not holy places, not the Vedas, not the yajñas; I am neither the eating, nor the thing eaten, nor the eater: my form is consciousness and Ānanda; I am Śiva, I am Śiva.

Embodiments of Prema! From the beginning the Veda has been teaching feelings of equality towards all human beings. You are not virtuous people, nor sinners; not yajñas, nor yāgas; not flowers, nor worship; not cattle, not animals, not human beings. Then who are you? You are the very form of Śiva! But because you cannot come to know the root principle, you look at names and forms and are deluded. Form and name are only marks of pravṛtti. You must not put your faith in them. You must enter the path of nivṛtti and recognise the root principle well.

(Swami, creating a lemon:) What is this? A lemon. By its shape, by its taste and by its outward nature we call it a lemon. But this is not a lemon; it is only a mass of cells. In every cell within it this lemon is present. The cells have no beginning and no end. They are endowed with great energy. This great energy is endowed with sacred Caitanya. This lemon is the very form of complete Caitanya. The person who eats it is also endowed with the Caitanya called ‘I’. So the eater is the form of Caitanya, and the thing eaten too is the form of Caitanya. Everything is full of Caitanya. Every man uses the two words ‘I’ and ‘mine’. “This handkerchief is mine, this glass is mine, this body is mine, this house is mine, this car is mine”: this ‘mine’ is the feeling of pravṛtti. ‘I’ is the principle of nivṛtti. The Caitanya called ‘I’ never changes. This is Constant Integrated Awareness. In every person there is the Caitanya called ‘I’. So every human being is the form of Caitanya.