In plain words
It is your own desire, ‘I want to be married, I want to be married’! You were married, and it became four legs. After that, you thought, ‘Now I want a son, I want a son’, and a son was born. It became six legs. We wished for these and brought them on ourselves; did anyone bring them and hand them to us? No one is giving us bondage. No one is punishing us. We are bringing it on ourselves. This bondage is not something natural. Our desires alone are our bondage. Reducing our desires alone is our freedom! In every matter, good and bad go together with the world. Nowhere in the world is there good without bad, or bad without good. The two always stay together.
Hardship and happiness, the two, are joined together; no one has the power to separate them; happiness by itself we shall nowhere see; when hardship bears fruit, they call it happiness.
When do we speak of happiness? When hardship bears fruit, we say, ‘I am happy.’ Where did happiness come from? Happiness came only when hardship went. When did happiness begin? Happiness began only when hardship went. The sun rose, and day began. The sun set, and night began. But are there two suns, for the night and for the day? No. There is one sun. One is the rising, one is the setting.
One happiness lies right between two sufferings
Only when hardship ends does happiness begin. Only when happiness ends does hardship begin. Pleasure is an interval between two pains. Right in the middle of two sufferings lies one happiness. Just as happiness lies between two sufferings, hardship too lies between two happinesses. People speak of ‘mosambi’, ‘sātkuḍi’.