In plain words
Because we have senses, we must not use them as we please. We must not gulp down every food we fancy. We must eat food for hunger. Not for taste. The nature of the body rests on food and drink. For the disease called hunger, food is the medicine. A bitter medicine cures malaria. To say, ‘No bitter medicine, I want a sweet one,’ is wrong. If you go to the doctor and say you want a sweet medicine, how will that do! The disease must be cured. In the same way, food must be sāttvic. Food to protect the body, clothing to keep off the cold. We must not let our desires grow large. The more desires grow, the more we become bound. The senses are merely artificial. As a clock runs once you give it its key, so the senses keep going round, through the wandering of the mind and through the growing of desires. They are like iron filings. As soon as they see a magnet, they move this way and that. The awareness is in the magnet, not in the pieces of iron. The mind itself is the magnet. The mind itself works in the waking, dream and deep sleep states. But in the causal state alone the mind becomes empty. The causal state is the state of samādhi. When you experience the Ānanda of God, there is no other care; all desires subside. Only when desires subside does Ānanda come. As long as there is a mind, sorrow is unavoidable. Only when you keep the mind under control does some happiness come. So reduce your desires. To reduce your desires, do more work. From eating and sitting idle, the mind roams unchecked. Play. Sing. Even in this way, if you set the mind on work, desires will lessen.