In plain words
This is precisely the important spiritual outlook we have to learn. We must not be the least afraid of small obstacles. All these are clouds that come and go on the way. Only when we face any hindrance with courage and win through can we attain transcendent Ānanda. Only when we face difficulties with courage does humanness blossom.
On this ‘Onam’ festival day you must receive a most noble and exemplary experience. ‘Onam’ is a festival that brings joy to all. We must share our joy with the people around us. We too must make it grow. At any time at all, joy does not come to us without suffering. ‘Na sukhāt labhate sukhaṃ’: from happiness we cannot gain happiness. Only because some difficulties come in between do we value joy. Even when troubles as huge as mountains befall us, we must regard them as trifling and pass beyond them. We must not give them so much as a place in the mind. The mind is fickle. So we must stop them before they enter the mind, and not welcome them. In fact, the mind itself is like Māyā standing in our way. We must not be startled or scared into submitting to the mind in the least.
We must face the mind. We must knock it down. Only then can we attain divinity. Frightened of the mind that came with Māyā, we are giving in to it. Many dangers befall us from the mind. So we must pay the mind no heed. We must not give in to it in the least. Only one who has mastered the mind is a true human being. One who cannot master the mind is no human being at all. If we keep giving in to petty troubles, how shall we become human beings? Even tiny ants, when any obstacles come, get past them and go on. Not only to human beings; to all living beings, from ants and birds onward, troubles keep coming. Whatever pain there is in the ant, that same pain is in man too. When even little ants bear their hardships and carry on with life, can man, so great as he is, not bear his troubles? Yet man gives in even to petty hardships. We must face hardships and troubles bravely and push them down.