In plain words
For a bright lamp to give light, we must set it in the dark itself. If we set it in the light, its light has no value. That is why they said, The pleasure is an interval between two pains. So we must not give way to suffering. We must not lose heart. When we keep faith in God with courage, build up trust, and try to follow it, we will achieve even such a thing. In the world, all who have come down as figures of history from ancient times to this day, not merely by the great deeds they did; their greatest deed was just this, fostering the two kinds of character in them, national character and individual character.
Many great souls have grown on the spiritual path. Vasiṣṭha, Satyavanta, Hariścandra, Dharmarāja, the emperor Śibi, the emperor Bali, Dadhīci: all of these entered this path and went on giving ideals of many kinds. The emperor Śibi offered up his own life to protect a bird. So we must be ready to make some sacrifice at least to protect the good and to guard the good. If instead we think, "We must have authority, authority", what we gain in this authority is only dishonour, only disgrace; we do not gain true Śānti and happiness. Authority is a great weakness.
A small story. In a house there lived a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law. But this mother-in-law had great Ahaṅkāra. She had a kind of delusion: "Every single thing must happen through me alone, and nothing must be allowed to happen by the daughter-in-law's order or by the daughter-in-law's word." The mother-in-law went off to some neighbour's house on an errand. At that time a beggar came to the house. Coming to the house he said, "Bhavati bhikṣāṃ dehi." The daughter-in-law told him. “There is nothing now, sir; please go.” But he still keeps saying, "Bhavati bhikṣāṃ dehi." She cut him off: "What, can't you hear what I said? Go, I cannot give you anything now." Saying, "All right," the beggar went off with a crestfallen face, poor man. The mother-in-law was coming back from the neighbour's house. She saw that this beggar was leaving, having come to her house. "Hey, beggar, did you go to our house?" she asked the beggar. "I went, mother," he said. "What did my daughter-in-law say?" she asked. "She said, 'I cannot give you anything now, go,'" he said. "What authority has my daughter-in-law to tell you to go? Come, come with me," she said, and took him along. "The authority to say that word is mine, but where does she get it? Come with me," she said, and took him along. This beggar thought the mother-in-law was going to give him something. The mother-in-law stayed inside for ten minutes. In the eleventh minute she came out and said, "Here, off you go; there is nothing." "What is this, mother? You held out such hope and called me back with you. I hoped you would put something in my bowl. And without giving me anything you tell me to go!" Saying this, the poor man was very hurt. Then this mother-in-law said, "The authority to tell those who come to the house to go is mine, but where has my daughter-in-law got it?