In plain words
So we must make what has been polluted pure again, to some extent. That is why they taught the nine kinds of sādhana.
Hearing of Him, singing of Him, remembering Viṣṇu, serving at His feet, worshipping, bowing down, serving as His servant, friendship, and the offering of the self.
Following any one of these nine kinds of principle, we must cleanse away this pollution. Humanness is bound up with divinity; it is not mere creaturely life. Every human being, every living creature, is the very form of God. In the end, even worms and insects and the like are divinity itself. What is the sādhana man must do? ‘Sādhana’ does not mean physical exercise alone. It is an enquiry that belongs to the mind. What is truth? Is the body true? Is Manas true? Is Buddhi true? No, no. None of them. The mind is a mad monkey. The mind is fickle. If we go on following such a fickle mind, we cannot reach the goal. Some day or other we cannot help giving it up. So we must make a fitting effort to forget it. But food and recreation are most necessary for looking after this body. These too we must take as food that is sāttvic, sacred and pure. If we go on doing this, what sādhana do we need beyond it? Whatever you take in, ‘So…ham, So…ham’: ‘So’ is You, ‘ham’ is I. Saying, ‘You Yourself are I, You Yourself are I,’ we must enquire well into divinity. That itself is what they declared in the Veda: ‘I am Brahman.’ “I myself am Brahman. I am God. I am not merely a human being made of the five elements. I am divinity. I am the principle free of delusion”: so must all of you remind yourselves every moment, from the time you rise at daybreak until you lie down at night. ‘I am God, none other.’ You must believe, ‘The one who bore me and brought me up is God Himself.’ Who gave you a mother? Was it not God! Each and every thing is nothing but the grace of God. If you forget the thought of God and take up other cares, all is lost. If you keep God in the mind, all worldly cares go far away. So we must foster that feeling for God with Prema. “With a mind rejoicing in Prema, say Rāma, Rāma, Rām.” This very Prema is God. God Himself is Prema. Without this Prema, no mother, no father, no brother, no wife. Everything is bound up with Prema. Only for our own convenience, our own pleasure, our own selfish ends, do we make up worldly ties of kinship. Give up selfishness and, first of all, strive for self-realisation, that is, for the direct vision of the Ātma. Who am I? The body? Manas? Buddhi? Citta? Ahaṅkāra? It is none of these. I am I. We must recognise this certain Satya. All of you are studying. You are taking degrees: B.A., B.Com., M.B.A., doctorates. Are there not any number of people in the world who have taken such degrees? What good comes to the world through them? They all look only to their own upkeep and give no help to others. So all these studies are only for filling the belly. That is not what matters. We must make sacrifice, free of selfishness. We must sacrifice the fruit of desire. Only when one sacrifices in that way is he a true yogī. ‘Yogī’ does not mean merely sitting under a tree, shutting the eyes and doing japa. To give up your desires is itself true sacrifice. It is in small, simple words like these that we must come to know humanness. We must make our heart broad. We must not stay merely narrow-minded. Through this narrow mind we turn out narrower still. Broad mind. Broad heart. Here ‘heart’ does not mean the physical heart. If it were the physical heart, it would need a heart operation. We must develop Prema.