In plain words
If the power of will is to arise in us, we must go on reducing our desires little by little
The power of will begins from saṅkalpa itself. From this power of will alone arise the power of intellect, the power of discrimination, the power of speech, the power of grasping, the power of decision: all of these. If we want to develop it, we must offer prayers to the Devī. Through the power of will alone all powers come to us. If this power of will is to arise in us, we must go on reducing our desires step by step. A fine example of this. You long to drink coffee. A longing to drink tea, a longing to smoke a cigarette, a longing to drink brandy: you have many longings like these. Suppose there are some twenty longings. Cut down ten of them, and your power of will grows! Give up drinking coffee a little. Look on the second day. Your power of will will have grown. Suppose you have some other bad habits; cut them down! The power of will grows. So if you want the power of will to grow, you must go on reducing the powers of Prakṛti and your wants. This is what Vedānta called Vairāgya. Vairāgya means keeping the desires of Prakṛti under control, nothing else! Vairāgya is not giving up everything and going off into the forest. We must grow the feeling for God and cut down the feeling for the world. Only when you ‘follow’ this kind of ‘balance’ in yourselves to some extent will the divine power of Prakṛti arise in you.
Once we master these powers of Prakṛti, the powers of saṅkalpa in the body become steady. The power of Prakṛti is Durgā, the power of saṅkalpa is Lakṣmī, the power of speech is Sarasvatī. To win these three, people do some japa and dhyāna in these Navarātri days. Merely praying is not enough. Prayers come only from the lips. No, no, they must come from the heart. This heart itself is the Ocean of Milk. Only when that Ocean of Milk is there will Lakṣmī arise from it. When that Lakṣmī arises, purity of speech is gained. Whatever we say becomes Satya. Here there are two ideas: Satya and Ṛta. What is Ṛta? Ṛta is that which carries the oneness of mind, word and deed. That is, Ṛta is the purity of the three instruments. To have faith in this Ṛta, follow the path of Ṛta and keep to one's word is Satya.