In plain words
Only when we lead a life of this kind do we gain, kaṣṭe phale, the fruit that fits this toil. No one can gain happiness without toil.
If you call and ask, will the cane give jaggery, unless you beat it to pulp and draw out the juice?
If we bow and say, ‘O cane! O cane!’ and ask it for jaggery, will it give it? By taking hold of it, crushing it to pulp, putting it on the fire and boiling it, and giving it many more kinds of treatment, it takes the form of sugar. If we say, ‘Alas, why should we trouble the cane?’ and set it in a corner, hoping, ‘There is jaggery in the cane, there is jaggery in the cane,’ the cane dries up and turns to pith. The sweet juice in it goes to waste. Our body itself is like a cane. These very treatments of ours are like the fitting sādhana. Through these hardships the juice called divinity comes forth. This raso vai saḥ: this very juice is the fitting help for our life. This is our divine life. So every person, not fearing hardship, not counting sorrow, must face all that comes with courage and daring and reach the path of Satya. We must make a fitting effort to experience this truth in the right way.
We do not try to experience each thing in the world after enquiring into it. Without enquiring, we try to experience something or other. That is why the Bhagavad Gītā too has spoken of three: jñātuṃ, draṣṭuṃ, praveṣṭuṃ. Jñātuṃ: first of all we must come to know the matter well. That too is true Jñāna. We must not enter into a thing blindly without knowing it. Where is what we want to be had? How is it to be had? From whom is it to be had? So we must enquire. For us, in this mango season, there are fine rasālu mangoes. I wish to eat these mangoes. Where is this mango to be had? When is it to be had? How is it to be had? This is the mango season. Only in this season is this fruit to be had. Where is this fruit to be had? It is to be had in the market. How is it to be had? Only when we pay money do we get it. So we must go to the market. To enquire into all this is jñātuṃ. When we go to the market and look, that is draṣṭuṃ. We have seen it. As soon as we saw it, we were satisfied in some measure.