1. Sometimes when a task is undertaken some difficulty may arise, but if the time is right, the work gets done spontaneously.
2. When the work is progressing, living beings feel enthusiastic and inspired day by day.
3. It is seen that when a being takes birth, there are fortunate times followed by times of grief, and then after undergoing a time of misery, God benevolently gives a time of some happiness.
4. If all times were fortunate, then everyone would be kings. Some times are fortunate, and some times are unfortunate. This is the natural order of life.
5. If one utilizes proper discrimination in worldly life and in spiritual life, many wondrous things naturally happen. This is a gift of God.
6. It is never seen nor heard on earth that one understands without listening, or that one becomes wise without learning.
7. Everything can be understood by listening. By knowing more and more, one's state of mind becomes clear and peaceful, and Essence and non-essence is properly understood in the mind.
8. Listening (shravana) means to hear correctly, and reflection (manana) means to retain what has been heard and to consider it again and again in the mind. This is the natural way of understanding in the three worlds.
9. While listening, many disturbances arise. There are so many such things, how can they all be mentioned? By remaining attentive, what is being told can be understood.
10. When people come to sit and listen, they become more attentive as the discourse progresses. However, when someone new arrives late, he is not as attentive.
11. Some people come to listen who have been to many different places and have heard different things from various people. Because they are confused, they are restless and cannot sit quietly.
12. There are very few people who act appropriately according to the situation. There are many disturbances that happen while listening. Please listen to some of them now.
13. Some people who come to listen to the discourse begin to feel physically uncomfortable and start making noise, or start yawning and falling asleep.
14. Some come and make the mind ready for listening, but their mind does not hear what is being said. Instead they only sit and think about various things that have been heard previously.
15. Some come and make the body ready for listening, but their mind is full of thoughts and they get caught up in concepts and imagination. How many such concepts and imaginings can be enumerated?
16. Only when what has been heard is properly considered and understood, can it be said that listening to the explanations has been worthwhile.
17. If the mind were visible and it was possible to hold it, then it would be easy to control. Control of the mind comes through discrimination. In this way, one retains the inner meaning of what is heard.
18. If someone comes to listen to the discourse after having just eaten a large meal, he soon becomes restless due to being thirsty for water.
19. If he asks for water and then drinks it profusely, he begins to feel nauseous and gets up and leaves.
20. There are some who let out foul smelling burps, some get the hiccups, some let out farts and feel very awkward, and some get up frequently to urinate.
21. Some become uncomfortable feeling the need to have a bowel movement, and forget about the discourse and make a run for the toilet. These types of things always occur.
22. Sometimes, if the speaker gives an extraordinary example, the mind of the listener gets stuck there. Some get carried away thinking about something that has been heard or read previously, and do not grasp the meaning of what is being said.
23. If someone comes and sits for the explanation, but by chance an insect stings or bites him, he gets distracted by the pain and cannot stay focused on the explanation.
24. For some, there may arise a pain in the stomach, or some pain in the back, or some discomfort in the knee joints, or an infection between the toes, or a boil on the rear-end, and they cannot sit for listening.
25. If someone happens to get bit by fleas, he becomes restless and leaves, or if there is some commotion outside, someone runs out to see what is happening.
26. Some people come to listen, but they get distracted by sexual attraction and cannot stop looking at the opposite sex. Sometimes thieves come and steal the footwear of the listeners.
27. Some come and make arguments, saying that one thing is true and that another thing is false, thus causing confusion and mixed feelings. Sometimes someone comes and says hurtful and abusive things. By doing so, he misses the explanations.
28. Sometimes people come and then after some time begin to start talking amongst themselves. Sometimes a speaker gives talks just for the sake of making money.
29. Sometimes when there are many knowledgeable people present they speak nonstop, one after the other, not caring about whether or not the needs of the listeners are being met.
30. Some people are always in the habit of saying, "I'm right, and you are wrong." In doing so, they abandon propriety and good ethics and behave improperly.
31. For the sake of proving their greatness, they babble on without any self control. Because there is no sense of propriety in their behavior, they only prove that they do not know how to act appropriately.
32. Some people are rigid with pride while others flare up in anger. Who can say whether such listeners are intelligent or dull-minded?
33. Therefore, those who are knowledgeable cleverly present themselves initially as being ignorant. They humbly act slightly foolish and unassuming, as if they do not know anything.
34. One who has understood that God is greater than oneself knows how to please and take care of the people in the world because God resides within all.
35. If there is quarrelling and commotion going on at the place of a gathering, the knowledgeable person takes the blame. If one does not know how to please the minds of others, he has not learned anything. How can such a person be called someone who is in union with God (a yogi)?
36. Enmity increases with enmity and one only suffers grief because of this. Therefore, the wise understand the secret of remaining humble.
37. Such people of wisdom take care to not allow themselves to become petty-minded. The wise and great people always know the importance of being peaceful and forgiving.
38. When a virtuous person sits next to a person without any virtue, the lack of virtue is immediately apparent. A discerning person always behaves with consideration.
39. The greatness of a person is known to the one who recognizes ways of providing solutions and alternatives, and who makes discrete efforts to achieve goals.
40. How can someone be considered wise if he gets dragged into arguments with an evil-minded person, or comes down to the level of lowly people by giving up proper discernment?
41. What does a foolish person understand about propriety or offering various alternatives and solutions to a problem? A foolish person makes a mess of a good meeting.
42. In that case, a wise person intervenes and corrects the situation. With patience and forbearance he teaches people to be tolerant. He knows how to do things himself as well as how to get things done through others.
43. There are many people on the earth, and among them there are a few who are truly virtuous. It is due to those few, that satisfaction comes to living beings.
44. He understands the many aspects of the minds of others, and knows how to respect others according to the situation and circumstances. He knows many ways of pacifying those who are agitated and angry.
45. Such a knowledgeable person is powerful and exercises discretion. The nature of his actions are not easily known by ordinary people.
46. He knows how to move people to action, and how to motivate various groups of people. Such a person achieves a powerful position through the power of discrimination.
47. Practice discrimination in solitude and hold firmly to continuous meditation on God. There should not be any distinction made of calling some people as "one's own" and some as "others" ( or "us" and "them").
48. Proper discrimination and efforts made are successful when one is in solitude. In solitude one's power of reason can become so sharp that one can understand the entire universe.
49. Meditate in solitude on God and the important things that were forgotten will be found, and you will realize that you are the all-pervading Inner-Self.
50. The one who enjoys being in solitude understands everything before others do. For achieving greatness, there is no substitute for solitude.