In plain words
After independence came, he himself became the Chief Justice in the Madras High Court. He was Muthuswami Iyer. Rejoicing that her son had become Chief Justice, that mother closed her eyes within a short time. Do you see! The saṅkalpa of the mother and the saṅkalpa of the son: what a sacred victory it brought! From that day on, this Muthuswami Iyer won great fame.
If you ask what fame is like, it is like a stream. When a river is born it is very small, but little by little it grows great. Saṅkalpas alone develop the foremost power, will-power. From will-power itself, the power of speech, the power of discernment, the power of intellect, the power of inquiry, all such powers arise in us from will-power. When the will-power is pure, that one can become Indra, Devendra. So such will-power is present in every human being. But what is the reason for this will-power, little by little, to dwindle or to perish? As man's desires go on growing and growing, his will-power goes on shrinking and shrinking. Today it is only because desires have gone beyond all limit that will-power has gone off its course. So, only because will-power has grown weak in him, man cannot experience the Ānanda or the Śānti he ought to experience. Practise to bring one thing into your direct experience. A man may have twenty longings. He wants coffee. He wants tea. He wants ganja, he wants cigarettes, he wants beedis, he has to play cards: man has so many longings of this kind. Go on reducing these desires one by one, one by one. Your will-power will grow little by little. So our desires alone are the root cause of our will-power shrinking or growing. Inquire for yourselves what the way is to restrain these desires.
Where was this world before you were born? Every being that is born must die. After you die, where is this world? This world is only something that comes and goes in between. What appears between death and birth is this world. To hold such a world before us and strive for its sake: what madness that is! This whole world is like a mirror. Only as long as you stand before the mirror does your reflection appear in the mirror. Put the mirror aside, and your reflection is simply not there. You must recognise the truth that it is pointless to waste the lasting, true human life for the desires of this world, so momentary and unstable. So, falling prey to selfishness alone and not believing in the good of others, we are wasting our lives. Who can say at what moment this mansion of life, built on an impermanent water bubble, will sink.