In plain words
Fulfilling his desires? Getting on in the world? Enjoying worldly joys? None of these matters. In human life, pleasure and pain both go together. You cannot experience pleasure alone. How can one who cannot help his fellow man find peace of mind?! We must help our fellow man. Every man has both troubles and comforts. But they come and go like passing clouds. We must regard both trouble and comfort as one. There is joy in sorrow, and sorrow in joy. Pleasure and pain are both unavoidable for man. But if you want to progress in life, you must look on these two equally. A man without equanimity does not earn the name of man. A man without equanimity is not fit to live in society. As was said, ‘Sukhaduḥkhe same kṛtvā lābhālābhau jayājayau’, we must hold an equal vision towards pleasure and pain. But man today, however many pleasures he enjoys, cannot bear it when a single hardship comes.
Go to a rich man and ask him, ‘Sir! Are you happy?’ What answer will he give? ‘Sir! I have as much wealth as I need. My sons hold high positions. My house has all the comforts. There are valuable things. I have everything, but I have no peace of mind’, he says. What is the reason there is no Śānti? Where does the fault lie? Man: ‘Sir! Who are you? Who are you?’ he asks the person before him, but he does not ask himself, ‘Who am I?’ If he learns the answer to the question ‘Who am I?’, all his troubles will end. So he must first of all try to know himself. If he does not know himself, however much else he knows, it is of no use. Will the earth yield a crop because the rains have come, if the seeds are not sown? Will the earth yield a crop if the rains do not come, though the seeds are sown? The rains must come, and the seeds must be sown as well. Only when negative and positive join does current flow. Likewise, only when God's grace comes to the aid of human effort is the fruit attained.
What God asks for
The Lord of all beings; all this is pervaded by the Lord. To forget such divinity and chase after physical pleasures is madness.