In plain words
All the rest is not Prema but attachment. Attachment means physical ties: ties of the body alone, ties of money. To love one another for these reasons is nothing but attachment! Gārgī and Maitreyī: they were all sisters. Maitreyī was Yājñavalkya's wife. His second wife was Kātyāyanī. Kātyāyanī and Maitreyī: Yājñavalkya had these two wives. Vairāgya arose in his mind. ‘How long must I stay caught in this mire? How long must I live in this unclean dwelling? Is there no divine, noble change for me?’ So, once, a fierce Vairāgya came over him. ‘Here, I am dividing my property equally between the two of you,’ he said. Then Maitreyī asked, ‘What do I need this property for?’ ‘You can be happy in life,’ he said. Then Maitreyī, once more: ‘If that happiness is there, why should you not go on living here? If happiness is really in this property, why are you giving it up and going away?’ ‘Will I find in this property the happiness that you do not have? I do not believe it. This property becomes a bondage for us, and that very thing turns into a noose for us. In the very end, that is what puts the noose round our necks! This pride and possessiveness alone put the noose round our necks. That is why I am giving it up. I do not want it. What I want is God alone! So I am setting out ahead of you,’ said Maitreyī. Then Yājñavalkya said, ‘Because I had such a wife, my life has passed as a life of peace.’ Only when there are both such a wife and such a husband is there Śānti in life. Such couples have become very scarce today. Such couples must come forth. Good sons must be born to such couples alone. Such good sons alone bring good fame to the country. So, if there are neither sons who bring good fame, as sons, nor mothers who bore such sons, as mothers, such mothers are not mothers at all.
If one does not worship Śiva till the hands ache, if one does not sing the glory of Hari till the mouth tires, if one does not hold in mind compassion, Satya and the rest, why be born, only to ruin the mother's womb?