Imagine there is a well and in order to take out water from the well you have to use a rope and a bucket. The same rope which is thrown in the well with the bucket is pulled out again with the bucket. When it is thrown in the bucket is empty and when it is pulled out the bucket is filled with water. The most important thing is not the bucket, nor the water but the rope which is used to bring the water out.
The same principle has to be applied in life as well. You consider the bucket, thinking that the bigger the bucket I have the more water I can bring out, but you don't have the rope. So, when you throw the bucket in the water it just sinks, and you can't pull it out.
The rope is the rope of happiness. One extreme of the rope is manahprasad, the outer, external happiness, and the other extreme of the rope is ananda, the spiritual bliss. It is that rope which is used to move the bucket up and down. The bucket is the container, which is the mind.
Therefore, the way to manage the mind, the way to control the mind, the way to guide the mind is through happiness. When you are happy then the mind is easily manageable and when you are unhappy the mind is definitely not manageable.
So remember: The rope is the rope of happiness. The bucket is the mind. The water which you are pulling from deep down the well is the experience of the inner self, which you bring out and which you bring up.
30 October 2016, Ganga Darshan, Munger