In plain words
If we live through three crore, eleven lakh and four thousand seconds in a year, do we live even four seconds of them in a holy way? Then where is greater Ānanda to come to us from? Out of three crore, out of eleven lakh, out of four thousand, we do not keep the mind in a holy way for even four seconds. And still I want, I want; what is it I want? Must we have still more unrest on top of this unrest? All we get in material life is unrest, and no Praśānti. Yet all the elders who have lived it today teach that this very thing is great Śānti.
A man went into a temple, they say, and was walking round Gaṇapati. Meanwhile the rain came. He stayed right there. It was a small temple, Gaṇapati's. There was just room enough for Him. Well! How long would he stay there? Idly he touched Gaṇapati all over, the trunk and all. He touched this, he touched that. He touched everything. He came to the navel. He put his finger in. As soon as he put it in, there was a scorpion there; it stung him. Well, what can he do now? He cannot speak of it. The rain stopped. He came out. He had a wicked wish: that what he had gone through, everyone should go through. “Ah, when I put my finger into the navel of that Vighneśvara, I found great Śānti,” he went about telling everyone joyfully. Listening to all his words, every single one of them put a finger into it. The same pain befell them all. None of them told anyone outside. The nature of the elders today is just like this. Fallen into family life themselves and suffering all its pain: ah, family life is a thing given to happiness. It is the root cause of happiness. You too fall into it. You too put your finger in it and get yourself stung. They do not tell anyone outside of the pains they suffer. Inside the sensual desires of the world, all pains of this kind are there. They cannot tell anyone outside. They cannot bear it within.
Of the happiness and Śānti enjoyed through these material sensual desires, we have none at all. But we must carry out our duty. Be it happiness or sorrow, we must go through it. We must take both with an even mind. We must go through both of them as God's prasāda. We must not go on comparing, “That is great, this is small.” In our human life it is most important to make the effort needed to keep these senses in check as far as possible. We must recognise the Satya that the mind is the root cause of sorrow and of Ānanda. When the mind is good, we have no pain even while living at home. Even if we go to the forest there are no troubles. If we fill the mind with impurity and go and sit in the forest, will we find Śānti there? ‘The mind is the cause, wherever else one may be, at home or in the forest.’ Home and forest do not give us Śānti.