In plain words
The stories of Rāma and Kṛṣṇa are sacred tales that taught such Dharma.
We must not think that Rāma Navamī means the day Rāma was born. The day we bring the principle of Rāma, the feeling of Rāma, to light in our hearts is the holy day. Eating well of pāyasam and sweet rice is not the holy day. We must make the ideal life our own. We must bow our heads to their aims and commands. We must follow in their footsteps. Then our birth bears fruit.
Once upon a time three persons came near the gate of heaven. One of them went forward: "I am a master of all the śāstras. Let me into heaven," he said. Then the gatekeeper: "Sir! You know books, but you have no wisdom of experience; go back," he said. Another came forward: "I am a sōmayājī who has performed yajñas and sacrifices. Open the gate," he said. "You performed yajñas and sacrifices out of selfishness alone. You have no right to enter heaven; go," said the gatekeeper. The third was a farmer: "Sir! In the two acres I have, I put up a small hut and gave shelter to travellers coming and going, and spent my days feeding them from what I had and eating myself," he said. "You lived giving up part of what you had; a place in heaven is yours for certain. Go in," the gatekeepers said, and they opened the gate. Today, if we ask ourselves what we have studied and how far we have changed, no proper answer comes. As long as we are listening, all is well. Within a few moments the intellect goes back to its old place. We must change this frame of mind a little. There is no use if the man changes but the mind does not. The mind has to change, not the man.
The Rāmāyaṇa has given a very high ideal. The Rāmāyaṇa wears as its very form the wealth of good qualities: kindness, compassion, sympathy and the like. Man today is bound with seven kinds of reins, ropes. 1. the body 2. karma 3. rāga 4. dvēṣa 5 Ahaṅkāra 6. power 7. ignorance.
Ignorance was born of the want of discrimination. The want of discrimination was born of Ahaṅkāra. Ahaṅkāra was born of dvēṣa. Dvēṣa was born of rāga. Rāga was born of karma. Since the body itself is born of karma, karma is the body's support. Rāga is the cause of karma. Dvēṣa is the support of rāga. Ahaṅkāra is the root of dvēṣa. The want of discrimination is the root of Ahaṅkāra. Ignorance is the support of the want of discrimination. First ignorance must be destroyed. The darkness must go. However much you fight, the darkness does not go. If you light a small lamp, the darkness goes. That lamp is the Name of God. If the darkness is to go, we must light the lamp of Jñāna. To develop Jñāna, we must take refuge in the boat called the Name. The most important things are just two. Dāna and the Name. Giving food, and the Name of Hari. With these two wings we can fly to heaven.