GRS

 This passage is beautiful and closely connected to what you were saying about oneness and “knowing God.”

Here is a translation of the Hindi text:

“The Covering of the Gift”
(11 January 1996, Weggis, Switzerland)

All sensory pleasures of the world are like the outer wrapping of a gift; the true joy is the presence within.

The wise know how to enjoy the gift within; the ignorant become entangled in the outer wrapping.

Divine love itself is the gift, but we become trapped in the outer covering of the gift and think we have enjoyed the gift.

The whole world is for your joy, but do not get lost in it. Open the wrapping of the gift.

The spiritual point here is subtle:

• Outer wrapping = sensory pleasure, forms, objects, appearances
• Gift inside = divine presence, love, inner joy, truth
• The mistake is confusing the container for the essence.

This echoes both what Jesus says and what the Gita points toward:

• In Gospel of John 17:3, eternal life is to know God — not merely know about God.
• In Chapter 12 of the Bhagavad Gita, devotion turns attention from outer distraction toward union with the Divine.

You could read this passage almost as saying: the world is the wrapping; Presence is the gift.

Or in Advaita language: the many forms are appearances; the One reality is what shines through them.