THERE lived in a village a young man named Padmalochan. People used to call him, ‘Podo’ for short. In this village there was a temple in a very dilapidated condition. It contained no image of God. Aswattha and other plants sprang up on the ruins of its walls. Bats lived inside, and the floor was covered with dust and the droppings of the bats. The people of the village had stopped visiting the temple. One day after dusk the villagers heard the sound of a conch-shell from the direction of the temple. They thought perhaps someone had installed an image in the shrine and was performing the evening worship. One of them softly opened the door and saw Padmalochan standing in a corner, blowing the conch. No image had been set up. The temple hadn’t been swept or washed. And filth and dirt lay everywhere. Then he shouted to Podo:
You have set no image here Within the Shrine, O fool!
Blowing the conch, you simply make Confusion worse confounded.
Day and night eleven bats Scream there incessantly.
There is no use in making a noise if you want to establish the Deity in the shrine of your heart, if you want to realize God. First of all purify the mind. In the pure heart God takes His seat. One cannot bring the holy image into the temple if the droppings of bats are all-around. The eleven bats are our eleven organs: five of action, five of perception, and the mind.
First of all invoke the Deity, and then give lectures to your heart’s content. First of all dive deep, plunge to the bottom and gather up the gems. Then you may do other things. (189)