In plain words
Will the cane give you jaggery if you just call and ask, unless you crush it to pulp and draw out the juice? Even a diamond of the finest kind must be polished on the stone; unless the guru shapes you, your worth is nothing.
Only when you give a diamond many cuts does it become truly valuable. It gains its brilliance. Without cuts, this diamond's value is not much. Unless you crush the cane to pulp, the juice will not come out. No sugar is made. Our body itself is a stick of sugarcane. When many hardships, losses and sorrows come to it and crush it to pulp, the juice of self-confidence arises in us. That itself is “rasovaisaḥ”; that juice itself is the form of God. Where in man is that juice? “Aṅgīrasāyanamaḥ”: it is in every limb. Here is another fine example of this. A stick of sugarcane holds sweet juice. But at the joints it is hard. The juice is richest right there. In the cane that is our body, hardships, sorrows and losses are the joints. In truth, in them alone we gain the experiences that are the sweetest juices. When we hold to this kind of equal-mindedness, the principle of Prema grows.
One who wants the fruit of merit must do meritorious deeds
We believe in Prema. What must we do for this Prema to grow? This is a doubt that arises in everyone. ‘Our Prema for God must grow day by day,’ they say. The only way for it to grow is to put into practice what we believe! When we do that, it grows of itself. But today we do not practise. That is why it is dwindling.
Only if you water a planted sapling every day does it grow. However good the sapling, if you plant it and do not water it, it will not grow. So when you plant this sapling called Prema, you must pour the water of Prema on it every day.