In plain words
Pray to God, make Him appear before you somehow or other, and ask Him for this gift,’ he advised. However much wealth she had, however many comforts, she had no happiness at all. No one came to her house. She did not go to other people's houses. Thinking someone would laugh if she went out, the poor woman kept the doors shut and suffered greatly. She begged her husband, ‘Let us go to the Himālaya for a month, pray to God and do tapas.’ Both agreed. They went to the Himālaya. A human being easily finds concentration in worldly desires for sense objects. In what concerns God, concentration does not come at all. There, because her longing for a nose had grown so strong, she sat praying to God with all her heart. Then, by her good fortune, God appeared before her. ‘Mother, what do you want?’ He asked. She asked: the very moment God appeared, she forgot everything and asked, ‘I want a fine nose, and a big one.’ God granted it, said ‘Tathāstu’ and went away. When she looked in the mirror, the nose was bigger than the face. She looked and, saying, ‘Alas, I do not want this nose,’ began her tapas again. God appeared again and said, ‘What do you want, Mother?’ ‘Swami, I do not want this nose,’ she said. Again He said ‘Tathāstu’ and went. And when she looked in the mirror, there was no nose at all. She thought, ‘I prayed for a good nose, and even the nose I had is gone!’ That is: even when God appears before us, even when God is close to us, even when He moves with us every day, playing and singing, we do not know how to ask and do not recognise it well; we ask for one thing in place of another, say one thing for another, and lose even the Ānanda we have. God is always ready to give everything we ask, but we fail to learn how we should ask. We must inquire to some extent what we should long for, at what moment, at what time, in what place. Since we do not know just this, which wishes to ask for in which place, time and circumstance, it is very easy for us to offer everything to Him, asking Him Himself to grant ‘what I need’.