In plain words
He will not leave his mother's lap and move forward even for a moment. He believes that it is in his mother alone that he experiences joy. But as time passes, drawn by toys to play with and toys that sing, he leaves his mother's lap and moves on. Within a short while he forgets his mother's lap. He believes that the toys to play with and the toys that sing are the most delightful things, full of joy. As time moves on, his humanness too goes on changing. Then he enters upon his studies. The moment he is shown these textbooks, he lets go of the toys to play with and the toys that sing. He trusts the textbooks above all else. He believes that education, and that alone, will make his life a joy. For the sake of such future joy, he buries himself among such textbooks. He believes that this very thing is the form of joy for his future. Little by little, as time moves on, his desires grow greater and greater. He gives up the books. He cranes his neck for marriage. The moment he gets a wife, he forgets everything else and believes his wife to be everything. Money troubles of many kinds hound the man who has entered family life. For their sake he leaves this joy behind and goes about night and day for a job. But at home the promotions grow many! By the time there are one or two children, no promotion comes at the office. The money that comes in and the money that goes out have no connection at all. Spending great, income small. And so, to keep the family happy, he spends all his time in the office itself, with excessive work.
While time passes in this way, old age comes rushing upon him. When this old age comes, even his wife and children will not listen to what he says. In the end even his sons go on defying his word. He becomes dependent on others. At that very point all sorrows close in on him. O God! The mother's lap that I hoped was joy, that mother's lap I gave up. The toys to play with and the toys that sing, which I thought lasting and true, those too I left behind. Little by little, whatever I thought would bring me joy, all those places of joy I gave up. All that I took to be joys is turning into sorrow. So, asking, “Where is eternal Ānanda to be had?”, only then does he go searching, crying, “O God!” So for humanness true Ānanda comes only in Divinity, but in the things of Prakṛti a passing joy may be had. So every man too, when he longs for Ānanda, must recognise the truth that only when we enter the spiritual path does such Ānanda come to us.