In plain words
Then, because you were not at home, I put a little in my stomach at some hotel and was able to write in peace, at ease. That is the help you gave me,’ he said.
To keep the mind at rest, it must be set to sacred deeds
Just so, for a man, the mind is a wife. This mind keeps bringing pressure to bear on him constantly. It torments him a great deal. When the mind moves some distance away, he gains peace of mind. In a quiet time he can think about anything sacred. So only when we make a fitting effort to keep this restless Manas at some distance can we shape our life into a sacred, ideal life. To keep the mind at rest, we must set it to some sacred deeds. That is what these games are for. While you play these games, the mind has no chance at all to wander into other things. The whole mind gathers its concentration on these games alone. It does not stray into needless matters.
Surely you have seen it: the monkey-man brings a monkey along. He ties a rope round its neck, takes it along with him and goes about from door to door begging alms. The monkey sits picking at and eating all the alms he has gathered this way. So he tries to give it some job. He takes a stick and holds it, and saying to the monkey, ‘Up you go, Timmanna, down you come, Timmanna; up you go, Timmanna, down you come, Timmanna,’ he sets it the job of climbing up and down the stick, up and down. While it does this job he goes on minding his own business. He has no trouble at all. All he has to do is give that monkey a job. That is what he does. Our mind too is a mad monkey. We must always give it a job; otherwise it will give us one. That is just why, when we take part in some demanding activity, this mind does not come anywhere near us.