In plain words
Then in the cold season we sit with fires lit around us, or put on a heater. What came of sitting near it? The cold that was troubling us went away. The warmth that gives us ease makes us glad. Now, if you ask what we keep fasts and upāsanas for today, we keep them for God. That is, what goes on is this: we sit in order to come close to God, and we go near to God. And the result of sitting near God, of going near God, is that God's Saccidānanda comes to us. Our bad qualities go far away. So it makes sense to call this effort to go near God an upavāsa or an upāsana; but instead, what is it like today, what we call fasting for God? In place of a meal they drink down half a dozen chapātīs, a dozen bananas and a seer of milk, and pass that off as a fast! Does this come under fasting? So, not taking the right meanings of the ideals given in the sacred culture of Bhārata, we waste our prayers and our sādhanas to some extent and fall into despair.
Students, embodiments of Prema! You have joined this summer class for this one month in order to understand this true matter. In these classes, take these sacred things well into your heart, and from now on follow them in the proper way, put them into practice, and take up the right path for your friends and for Bhārata in the future, and shape it: I hope for this and, blessing you, I bring My talk to a close.