In plain words
What is this joy? I have told the children many times. All of it melts and melts, moment by moment, and turns to soot. Married in the morning, in the evening they walk hand in hand in a public park. The husband, by luck, sees a thorn. Wife is life. Afraid she may set her foot on that thorn, he takes her hand and says, back back. Barely six months have passed, and again they are walking in a park. Again the husband sees a thorn. He says, See there is thorn. That anxiety has come down. Then, six months after that, again they are walking on the beach. There the husband saw a thorn. ‘Are your eyes not seeing? The thorn is right there!’ he says. All the Prema of the world sinks like this, moment by moment!
Our Ānanda Rests on Our Own Resolves
Divine Prema for God grows day by day.
He who builds a wall, along with the wall, goes on rising higher, by fortune's grace.
The one who builds a wall goes up himself, the higher he builds it.
He who digs a well, along with the well, goes on wearing down toward the bottom.
The one who digs a well goes down along with the well. For going up and for going down: ‘Karmānubandhīni manuṣyaloke.’ And then some justify this for themselves. ‘What is one to do? I cannot bear the nagging of the elders at home, so I am falling into this,’ they say. This is an out-and-out stunt! If one truly does not want it, what can the people at home do? However hard you are pressed, if you are told to drink poison, will you drink it! It is all one's own fault! ‘One's own contentment is heaven.’ The root cause of one's sorrow is one's own desires. The root cause of one's Ānanda is one's own resolves.