In plain words
At times very hot winds blow. We cannot bear those either. Rain pours down in torrents. But we cannot endure that for long either. A cold wind blows that wastes the flesh. We cannot bear that either. What wretched sun. What wretched cold. ‘What wretched rain, it gives me no rest at all,’ we keep cursing. These are the natural marks of nature. Where is our right to curse nature's appointed season and appointed time? We must foster the feeling that looks on such good and bad alike. This equal mind, the evenness of man, we must develop in the very stage of study. Otherwise, if the balance in our life is lost, our very life sinks into danger. When does this balance go wrong? Our cleverness is growing very much. But without making the effort it takes to nourish this knowledge, we are leading it down a wrong path that will spoil it. Make your knowledge into skill. The balance will be fine. But you are killing your knowledge. What does that mean? You are misusing it. You are putting it on an evil path. That is why the balance here is going wrong. Even walking depends on balance. Riding a cycle depends on balance. Life is a balance. If this balance is lost, life falls into danger. That is why we must foster the equal measure of these four: knowledge, skill, balance, Insight. In this way we must pass, to some extent, from what is called uparati into titīkṣā.
Śraddhā is the fifth. This śraddhā itself is our life. Without śraddhā we cannot succeed in even the smallest task. Give a man of śraddhā a little fire, and he can tend it well and make it a big fire. Give a man without śraddhā a winnowing-fan full of fire, and he will put it out. That is why: Śraddhāvān labhate jñānam. If we are to gain Jñāna, there must be śraddhā. That śraddhā itself is tapas. That śraddhā itself is Ānanda. That śraddhā itself is Jñāna. That śraddhā itself is learning. So there must be true śraddhā. Without śraddhā what can we do? We become bound. From the bound we turn into bullocks. From bullocks we sink into cruelty. From cruelty we slide down into the beast. So we must develop śraddhā. Through this śraddhā, the keeping of time and the setting of the hour. Keeping time comes first. We must nourish it with this śraddhā. College at nine o'clock. You must come at exactly that time. Today even some elders say the meeting is at four in the evening. They come at nine at night.