In plain words
Failing to know oneself is the great bondage
There is nothing in this world that man cannot achieve once he resolves on it. But before any such achievement he must recognise his own strength and his own nature, and act on it. The man of today is someone who climbs to the sky, thinking he knows everything. He cannot win Ānanda. What is the reason? He may count the stars and set foot on the moon, but when he does not take stock of himself and cannot recognise himself, the sense of wholeness in him wastes away. The sense of wholeness does not belong to outward sight. Wholeness belongs to inward sight. Only when the sense of wholeness is complete can one be a true seer. To such a seer alone does Ānanda come. Then what are these bonds that bind man, that we keep calling ‘bondage, bondage’? Only when man recognises what bondage is can he make the effort fit to free himself from it. Wife and children? They are not bondage. Property and possessions? Not that either. Desires bound up with sense objects? No. Failing to know oneself is the great bondage. For one who cannot know himself, there is no escape from sorrow.
Only when the feeling of God arises does sorrow leave and Ānanda come
As long as there is sorrow, Ānanda does not come; so what are the sorrows that surround man? They surround him in three ways and torment him in many ways. One is the sorrow that comes from untruth. The second is the sorrow that comes from darkness. The third is the sorrow that comes from death. In the language of Vedānta these have been divided into three words: Prakṛti, the jīva and the Paramātma. Until man gives up what must be given up, Ānanda does not come to him. Until man knows what must be known, Ānanda does not come to him. Then what must be given up? What must be known? What is the place to be reached? These are what we must inquire into. What we must give up is the feeling of the world. The reason is that the world is not other than God.