In plain words
Why must these toys be kept there? For the children's joy. These things must be kept there. The mother has no use for those things. When the child cries, the mother cannot bear it. To gladden the child, she gives the children even things she has no need of, and so makes the child happy. In the same way, when the devotee is to be gladdened, when the divinity that has arisen in him is to be brought forth, even the opposition that takes the form of this world, even worthless things, must be set all around him, and through them it must be drawn out.
Here is a small example. Without the fibre in sugarcane, the juice could not stay. What we must take is the juice. What we must let go is the fibre. This juice comes bound up with the fibre. We have no need of this fibre. But it is only through this fibre that we must get this juice. In the same way, it is only through opposing paths that we must try to reach the true divinity. Even in the smallest matter, it is only when we follow certain opposing paths that the true principle becomes clear to us. When we want to exercise the body, if the body is to gain good strength and well-being, we must work it hard in many ways.
Will sugarcane give its jaggery if you call it and ask, Unless you crush it to fibre and draw out the juice?
Even a diamond of the finest kind must be cut on the stone. If it is not cut on the stone, a diamond has no value. That is why, though divinity is in all, in some individuals it shows itself outwardly. What is the reason it shows itself outwardly? The reason it comes to be manifest is the blended bond of the two: the feeling in the devotee and the Prema in God.
Who was the cause of Narasiṃha appearing before Prahlāda? Prahlāda? Or Hiraṇyakaśipu? Both were the cause. There, both were whetted on the stone: the faith in Hiraṇyakaśipu and the faith in Prahlāda. “Where is God?” Hiraṇyakaśipu asked. Prahlāda answered, “Do not doubt that He is here and not there.” Then is He in this pillar? “He is,” said Prahlāda. Then he struck the pillar. At that very moment Narasiṃha appeared. So it was with the differences between these two, close as their ties of kinship were, that the root causes of this arose. God was in that one in that form, and in this one in this form. He who says it is He; He who is spoken of is He.