In plain words
We take one single lamp and light many lamps from it. Here the one that lights them is one single (flame) candle. The ones that are lit are many lamps. The lamp that lights them is the Supreme Light. The lamps that are lit are the lamps of life. Only the one Supreme Light goes on lighting the many lamps of life. To teach this to the world as the truth, people today light all these lamps without number. In this joy and festive spirit they light these sparklers. What is the root cause of setting them alight? They set off crackers to mark the slaying of Narakāsura. The festivals of Bhārata, filled with inner meanings of this kind, have each taught an inner meaning of its own. Today, to bathe the very moment you rise at dawn, to put on new clothes, to clean the house and the doorway, to tie up green festoons: this is our custom in Bhārata. To bathe the head in this way and put on new clothes for purity within and without, for purity of the citta: what does this mean? Not old clothes, not soiled ones. New clothes. These festivals began with the intention that we should take our life to be ever new. Cleaning our house is a sign of inner purity. This is just what the Veda says: ‘Nārāyaṇa abides pervading all of it, within and without’; we must be pure within and without. Remembering the Name for the sake of what is pure. Water makes the outside clean. Prema makes the inward heart pure. If we want purity of the citta, we need the water called Prema. So on these holy festivals we must experience and rejoice in these holy inner meanings and make our time worthwhile by contemplating God. What is the root cause of all these hardships, losses and sorrows of man? Impurity of mind alone is its root cause. The impurity that belongs to the mind is what subjects man to hardships, losses and sorrows of this kind. We must not simply lay the blame on the world, saying that it gives us these hardships. We ourselves are causing the world pain. Man himself is the root cause of these hardships and losses. Because man has no pure heart, he is subjecting the world to all this unrest.