In plain words
Give up pride and one becomes dear; give up anger and one does not grieve; give up desire and one becomes rich; give up greed and one is happy.
Embodiments of Prema!
A man without Ahaṅkāra is loved by everyone. One without anger meets no sorrow. One without desires is hounded by no sorrows. He lives in Ānanda at every moment. For one without greed, this world always makes for happiness.
Desire is the constant enemy
When we cleanse the impurity in our mind, humanness shows itself as divinity. Today the world faces many problems. On one side the fear of war, on another the dread of famine and drought, on a third the lust for power, on a fourth selfishness. Hatred between man and man. Enmity between race and race. What is the cause of this? Because morality has been set aside and humanness forgotten, problems of many kinds in society have become too hard to crack. A man who carries these three, greed, fear and anger, cannot succeed in any task, however small. The first is greed. Desires are dragging man down. Desires must be there, but they should be limited desires. When they pass all bounds, man's course strays from the road. These desires are very dangerous. The opponent of today may be a trusted friend tomorrow. Today's enemy may be tomorrow's friend. Today's friend may be tomorrow's enemy. But desire is an enemy at all times. They keep hounding man. The Bhagavad Gītā called it nityaśatrūnāṃ. Desire is the constant enemy. We must try to keep these desires under control.
Attachment to the body is sorrow
Today man is sinking under unrest of many kinds; he hopes for peace, seeks divinity and longs for purity. But why is he unable to have the wishes he longs for fulfilled? What is the cause of these sorrows? Is it the sorrow that what he hoped for did not happen, or the sorrow that a task he attempted bore no fruit, or the sorrow that he could not pile up money, gold, goods and vehicles? The man of today takes all such things for sorrows, and simply forgets his own divinity. This is not real sorrow; attachment to the body is sorrow. To think "I am the body" is itself sorrow. The two words "I" and "mine" are what bring sorrow. "I" is Ahaṅkāra. "Mine" is possessiveness. Ahaṅkāra and possessiveness are the root cause of man's endless sorrows. We must make some effort to lessen attachment to the body. These desires give man joy, and they bring him sorrow. We must keep the mind under control. Though lakhs of people gather and grab hold of a train running at speed, it will not stop. But if the brake is pressed in the engine, the train comes to a halt. A train that lakhs of people cannot stop, one small pin stops in a moment. In just the same way, the root cause of all man's sorrows is the mind. ‘Mana eva manuṣyāṇāṃ kāraṇaṃ bandhamokṣayoḥ’: when we keep this mind under control, all our sorrows are cleared away. The Bhagavad Gītā said ‘Ādityavat’. When dense clouds cover the sun shining in splendour, it is not seen, and there is thick darkness. But when a storm wind blows, these clouds move off and the sun appears, shining by his own light. In the same way, though the Ātma shines in man in splendour, the cravings called man's attachment and possessiveness hide this Ātma principle from us like dense clouds. When the wind of Prema blows on this, Ahaṅkāra and possessiveness move away, and it gives the light called the Ātma principle. Man today must try to keep his Ahaṅkāra and possessiveness under control to some extent. These desires push down in a moment not just this great one or that great one, but even the sun, the moon and the others, and the gods, Indra and the rest. However brilliant one may be, however learned, one cannot help but give in to these desires. We must control the force of this mind, its speed, as far as is possible. Arjuna had great power of intellect. He was one who had won titles of many kinds. He received titles such as these: Arjuna, Phalguna, Pārtha, Kirīṭi, Śvetavāhana, Savyasācī, Bībhatsa, Vijaya, Kṛṣṇa, Dhanuñjaya. Even such an Arjuna fell victim to this disease within a moment. He was bound by this one word, sva, "one's own". What is this sva? One's own people, one's own kin. "Mine": through this very attachment he laid his Gāṇḍīva down, became wretched and grieved. The cause? This attachment and possessiveness. Such attachment and possessiveness will destroy him at any moment, at any time, in any place, at any age.