In plain words
Take a cane full of sweet juice and set it in one place: ‘O sugarcane! Sweetness is in you; give it to me,’ we may bow and plead, and nothing will come of it. In four days even that sweetness will vanish. The juice will dry up. If we want to enjoy that sweetness, we must put it through the machine, crush it to pulp, put the juice back on the fire and boil it down well; only when it is made into jaggery does it last as an enduring sweet. To reach this lasting state, how many hardships this cane must go through! Only when it suffers and bears these hardships, only when it endures them and pushes through, does it reach the lasting state.
One without self-confidence is blown about like a dry leaf
If you hold a lump of gold in your hand, there is no security in it. There is no beauty and no joy. But it has value. What use is it having value? If it is to give us joy, it must be cut into pieces, put in the fire and melted, beaten with a hammer and chiselled; only then does it become a fine jewel to wear round the neck and enjoy. If it were not given these hardships, losses and pains, it could not become a fine jewel. Every man too is like gold! That is why, to one and all, “My gold! My gold!” is what I keep saying. That is, you are very precious! But you must bear some hardships, sorrows and worries with a measure of calm. You must not let your mind change because hardships, losses and sorrows have come. I told you yesterday. An iron ball and a dry leaf. When both are placed together and there is no wind, both stay still. But let the southern breeze blow, and the dry leaf runs off seven miles. The iron ball stays right there. So only when we bear and endure the hardships and sorrows of the natural world, only when we develop faith in God, can we be like the iron ball.