Passage 7

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In plain words

You yourself are God. You are God. You are everything. You yourself are society. You yourself are the world. You yourself are the sky. You yourself are the earth. You yourself are the stars. You yourself are all. So first of all we must make the principle ‘I alone am all’ firm in the mind. ‘I am One; I shall become many’, ‘Truth is one; the wise speak of it in many ways.’ Because we rely on names and forms, diversity appears; but if we inquire beyond name and form, oneness alone reveals itself everywhere.

Desires must have a bound and a measure

In this world everything has a limit. Nothing exists without a limit. But today the whole of society is crossing the limit. Our very body is a limited company. If, with a body like this, we behave without any limit, what will become of us! So we must know our bounds and act within them. When a doctor gives a patient medicine, he tells him to drink it so many times a day, so many ounces at a time. If you cross that limit and drink more of it, another illness comes. In the same way, God too has set a limit for each and every human being. If through Ahaṅkāra we cross that limit, we fall into danger. So we must keep our desires within bounds.

Today we keep adding to our kinships of many kinds. All of it is nothing but the world's own creation! At first you were alone. Then you married. A son was born, a daughter was born. Then a grandson was born, a granddaughter was born. In this way ties of kinship go on growing without limit. The cause of this is nothing but your desires for the things of the senses. If you reduce your desires for the things of the senses, you will be greatly the better for it. Less luggage, more comfort makes travel a pleasure. Cut your luggage down a little. Build up the courage and daring that this calls for. Neither courage nor daring is something others can hand you. You must earn your courage and your daring yourself. You must cultivate your forbearance yourself.