Passage 3

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In plain words

The kinds of flowers differ, the worship is one; living creatures differ, the jīva is one; the colours of cattle differ, the milk is one; the adornments differ, the gold is one.

Put it on your wrists and they become bangles; put it round your neck and it becomes a necklace; put it on your finger and it becomes a ring. The ornaments differ, but the gold is one, isn't it! In the same way, your forms and names differ, but all of you are embodiments of the Ātma, embodiments of Prema. So it is not right for you to hate yourselves. You must love one another. Immortality is attained through Prema alone. Prema is in everyone. But people send that Prema down the wrong road. Each body is like a bulb. The bulbs and their colours may differ. But the current is one, isn't it! In the same way, “Īśvaraḥ sarvabhūtānāṃ”: the portion of God in all is one. So you must recognise the truth that all of you are born of a portion of God. Only when you recognise the portion of God that is in you will your birth be blessed. Unable to recognise the divinity that is in himself, man wanders here, there and everywhere wanting to see God, and wastes his time. Wherever you set foot, divinity is there. “Can one build a temple for God, who fills the whole cosmos?” Your heart is the very temple of God. “The jīva dwells in the body, God dwells in the heart”; so see God in the heart itself. This is the easy path.

Reduce the ‘luggage’ called desires

In truth, there is no such thing as sorrow for man. There is no room for sorrow at all. Man is full of Ānanda. But he grows needless desires for the objects of the senses and falls prey to sorrow. “Sukhaduḥkhe same kṛtvā lābhālābhau jayājayau.” Towards joy and sorrow you must hold to equanimity, and not give in to them. Because desires have grown in man, he spends his love along many different paths. Less luggage more comfort make travel a pleasure.