In plain words
Playing cards with relish all that night: does merely spending it so make it a vigil? The fishermen at the tank, out for fish, their gaze lying in wait: does that become dhyāna? A husband who, sulking at his wife, goes without food himself: does that become a great fast?
Embodiments of Prema! On the holy day of Śivarātri, many people play cards the whole night through, meaning to put their time to good use. Once an officer came to Me. I greeted him and asked, ‘How did you spend your time last night?’ ‘Swami! I spent the time very happily,’ he answered. When I asked, ‘What was that happiness?’, ‘I played cards the whole night. Sleep never came at all. I went on playing cards to my heart's content,’ he replied. And I, once again: ‘Yesterday was Śivarātri, was it not! Spending the time in this way, how did the fruit of Śivarātri come to you?’ I said. ‘Since no worries of any kind came to me, I felt I was enjoying happiness. This was the very vigil I kept,’ he said. For example, a fisherman who had cast his hook into the tank for fish took the way he watched, wondering when a fish would bite, for concentration. The practices of concentration and the dhyāna that man does today are just like this. Another drank arrack, forgot himself, and said, ‘I have attained absorption.’ Another, sulking at his wife, lies down without food: does that become a great fast? Some foolish people attain such absorptions and concentrations and delight in them.