In plain words
At the principal festivals kept in Prasanthi Nilayam, the festival of the flag is a principal tradition. A flag shines out as the emblem of victory. But today, the first day of the Navarātri festival, what victory have we won?
Now that we have come to be human, the chief victory we must win is the vision of the Ātma: knowing ourselves. To come to know the impermanent things of the world and yet carry on with life without knowing oneself, the one who knows them in that way: that is simply laughable.
When you look closely at the state of the world, it is easy to see that every object is changing in many ways, from moment to moment. Everyone knows full well that if you plant a single seed in the soil, that one thing takes on many forms and shapes itself into a trunk, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruits and other such things. Not their forms and names alone; the quality of each one is different too. Their uses also vary, because the quality changes.
One and the same clay, through the potter's skill and effort, takes on many forms and names and turns into all kinds of vessels, fit for many purposes. The same gold turns into ornaments of every kind. These are everyone's own daily experience, are they not? But what is the inner meaning of this? That we must examine ….
Every effect must surely have a cause! Clay does not turn into a pot by itself; the potter alone is the cause of that change. The clay is only the upādāna kāraṇa! The potter is its nimitta kāraṇa. God, who knows all and can do all, makes the primal Prakṛti, the ground of everything, shine with His own radiance; so to know that the upādāna kāraṇa and the nimitta kāraṇa are both that very Parabrahman, and to adore that God, who is both the doer and the enjoyer, to worship Him, earn His Grace and so cross over: this alone is man's first duty. That alone is the true victory!
In the Sāṅkhya they say that the combining of atoms is itself the basis on which objects come into being, endure and dissolve. If you say that from various combinations there arise objects with varied patterns of colour, with their forms, names, qualities and uses, that much does not settle the problem of the world. There remains the question of what brings this joining about, and through whom it takes place.