In plain words
Man has not been able to recognise this, and all these modern kinds of education look on spiritual education merely as something untrue, something not to be believed, something of a joke. When a man of faith longs for Mokṣa, some students mock him with ugly words: 'What is this Mokṣa? Why should one want it? What is there in this Mokṣa?' What man must first recognise is what Mokṣa means. If they recognised that, they would not take a single step to say they do not want it. To recognise oneself first of all: that is Mokṣa. Who is oneself? The very embodiment of Ānanda. So to seek Ānanda and to shun sorrow: this is Mukti. Is there any man in the world who says he does not want this? That is precisely why the goal is nothing but the ending of sorrow and the gaining of Ānanda. Keeping such a goal before us, we must follow a sacred path to some extent, so as to make our humanness worthwhile.
Curbing Manas. What is this Manas? Nothing but our resolves. These resolves must stay within some limit. To enjoy resolves within this limit is the natural life itself. Food to eat, cloth to wear, a house to live in: these are essential for us. To long for health, happiness and Ānanda is natural to us. It is natural too that we make some efforts for them. But we must not desire these limited desires beyond measure. Desire means wanting to go from the place where one is to a somewhat higher place. These desires are of two kinds. One is greed, the other is wicked desire. We must try to understand to some extent what this wicked desire is. We have a house; that is enough. To want two more besides. As these desires grow, a kind of unrest grows strong within us. For one who has this unrest, happiness stays very far away. So through these desires we are buying unrest. Through this unrest we suffer unhappiness. What is the root cause of this unrest and unhappiness? Nothing but our desires. The more our cravings and our looks at things increase, the more our unrest increases too. As these cravings shrink, Ānanda keeps on growing. So when we long for Ānanda, we must enter only into actions that belong to Ānanda. Thinking that we are enjoying a passing Ānanda, we are taking on a sorrow far greater than that. For a mean, fleeting pleasure we are walking into endless sorrow. Our bad habits of today, our bad feelings and bad company, bind us and push us into nothing but a kind of unrest. Who is the doer of this? Who is the cause? Our desires alone are the cause. We ourselves are our own doer. But not recognising this truth, we … fall into false notions that someone or other is the cause of my sorrow, someone or other the cause of my unrest.