In plain words
Students! You may think the spiritual principle is merely something that cannot be understood. We must go on regarding this very thing as the complete principle. If we want to understand this Ātma principle, we cannot understand it merely in the physical world. They get only as far as material knowledge. We must come to know the very principle beyond this as Consciousness. If we know this fundamental knowledge, we may then try to know about worldly, physical objects.
Students! You must not think the spiritual is a principle that cannot be understood. It is the power of consciousness itself, joined with inner feeling. What is awareness? They think it is our recognising a thing. (Showing a handkerchief) Ask what this is, and it is a handkerchief. This is awareness. Ask what this is, and you say, ‘Flower.’ This is awareness. All these are forms of physical objects. This is cloth. What is its basis? Without thread, the cloth did not come about. Without cotton there is no thread. Cotton first. Second, thread. Third, cloth. We recognise only the cloth, but we do not recognise the principle that is the basis of the cloth. People today keep inquiring into matters of many kinds. Looking with feelings of certain kinds, they do not understand what the object is. They keep speaking of everything, but no one recognises what this is. In the world today, the Ātma principle alone is to be recognised. One who has recognised the Ātma principle can easily recognise all principles.
What is the Ātma principle? There is the body. In this body there are limbs of all kinds. All the limbs keep working. But what is the basis for their working? When we hold a flower in the hand, what gives the hand the strength? We smell this flower with the nose. Where does this power of taking in the scent come from? All these tell of physical things, but they do not try to teach the inward Ātma principle. ‘This is my hand, this is my leg, this is my head,’ you say. But who are you? Only if you understand what ‘you’ is can you say, ‘This is my head.’ Whose is this head? Whose is this leg? Without knowing all this you say ‘I’, but who are you? To know the ‘I’ is Vedānta itself, it has been said. Every person: ‘Who are you? Where have you come from?’ they keep asking, but they do not put to themselves the question, ‘Who am I?’ If we recognise the ‘I’, we become those who have recognised everything. The spiritual principle is not a principle that cannot be understood or that is of no use. There is one principle that is the basis of everything. We must make the effort to recognise it.
Embodiments of Prema! What kind of thing is Prema; can man live without Prema! Love is God: we must first of all recognise this Prema. Without Prema there is no life at all. Without Prema there are no objects at all. Without Prema no things at all are seen. So there is one power, inherent in everything. Many people say it is Satya. What is Satya? ‘Trikālābādhyaṃ satyam,’ it has been said. But we must not decide it is Satya on this much alone. Satya is what is beyond the three times. Where does untruth come from? ‘Speak the truth, speak what is pleasing; do not speak a truth that is unpleasing,’ it has been said. But this Satya has no form. It has no form, but it has meaning. In the same way we say, ‘Truth is God, Love is God.’ For everything you use the word God. What is the inner meaning of God? Even an atheist, when he does something wrong, says, ‘Oh my God!’