In plain words
We must foster this kind of Bhakti, and humility and obedience, and let them spread. Only then will hatred be rooted out of the world.
Only up close is the form rightly understood
The Veda teaches, ‘Tat tvam asi’. ‘Tat’ means ‘that’; ‘tvam’ means ‘this’. What is far from the senses is called ‘that’. What is near the senses is called ‘this’. We must first understand what ‘Tat’ means. ‘Tat’ means what is far from you. ‘Tvam’ means what is near you. As long as it is far off, you cannot recognise its form. Only when it is near can you see its form clearly. So if you want to see the form of ‘Tat’, you must turn it into ‘Tvam’. You have kept ‘Tat’ (divinity) at a distance. That is why you cannot recognise its form. A small example: as you are walking somewhere in the dusk, a rope lies across the path. Seeing it from a distance: What is that? That question rose up in you. Because it was far off, it looked to you like a snake. You went up to it, shone a torch on it and looked. You realised, ‘This is not a snake, it is a rope’; the fear went away; you took it in your hand. When it was far from you, you suspected that ‘that’ might be a snake, and you were afraid. After going close, you recognised the truth that ‘this’ is not a snake but a rope. When you think that divinity is far from you, that is, when you think of divinity as ‘Tat’, fear and doubt arise in you. So first you must turn ‘Tat’ into ‘Tvam’. That is, you must draw near to divinity. This is exactly what the Upaniṣad taught! ‘Upa’ means near, ‘ni’ means close by, ‘ṣat’ means sit. What is its inner meaning? Sit near divinity. Only in nearness do you understand the form clearly. So you must not think that Upaniṣad means some essence of the Veda or other. The Upaniṣad is precisely what shows the nearness of divinity.