In plain words
The human body came into being for the doing of karma, not merely to wear decorative clothes, take nourishing food, and show life off as merely a form of display. Alms-food to protect the body, clothing to ward off the cold: by these two we must nourish the body, and through that make a fitting effort to put the body to use in the doing of karma. On every path, moral, physical, dharmic, worldly and spiritual, whatever victory we have pictured to ourselves and wish to win, for that victory discipline in the experience of both faith and sacrifice is most essential. Where there is no discipline, a man cannot so much as recognise even what his own duty is. We build banks and dams across the flowing rivers, and so make it possible to bring their water to our crops in the proper way. In just the same way, if there is no bank at all, if no dams at all are built, the stream will be of no use to us. In the same way, discipline is like a dam for the stream called our life. The roots are the support of a tree. Only when we water the roots, put manure on the roots and help them grow as they should does the tree too grow and give fruit and flowers. In the same way, for man the age called youth is like the roots. Only when these roots are kept safe enough, only when they are nourished enough, can the tree called life stay well. I have said it many times. We must compare our life to a tree. This tree has as its branches our mother and father, our brothers and sisters too: many relationships. In this tree, all our friendships are like the leaves. But all these friendships drop away from time to time. In it there are flowers that give a fine fragrance. Those very flowers are our good qualities. Only through these flowers does the fruit come. This very fruit is Ānanda. The sweet juice within this fruit: that is character. If that sweet juice itself is missing, we do not like the fruit. Above, fruit; below, root. This very root is faith in God.