In plain words
For a month now I have been explaining to you the inner meaning of the sayings of the Vedas and the greatness of the culture of Bhārata. It is most necessary that you recognise, in this very stage of your life as students, that the Veda alone is the authority for our worldly and our spiritual lives. If you recognise the inner meaning of the Vedic mantras, of the deities in the Veda and of the hymns in the Veda, unfolding, Śānti and security will come into your life. To seek Ānanda, and to scramble after it, is only natural to all living beings. But it is indeed necessary, too, to recognise that there is no lasting Ānanda in material pursuits. It is not in things outside; it is in the seat of the heart itself.
Unable to give the Ānanda of the heart. Education that cannot establish Śānti in the mind and cannot recognise the Divine is not true education. Through education, lofty ideals, the opening of the heart and the radiance of the light of Jñāna: all these must grow. Today they are giving only the education that serves for earning a living; that is mere learning for food. Without studying this education for years on end, without so much as spending money and time on it, are there not ever so many people living who deserve to be called uneducated? Do they not attain Ānanda? So this is not education. Weighing right and wrong in worldly matters and living in fear of sin and in love of God; practising humility and obedience; making Vijñāna blossom; being ever devoted to the service of mother and father; using all their strength and ability in serving their family, their village, their country and their language: an education that does not serve such ends, and the degrees that come from studying it. Are only a burden on the head, nothing else; precisely through such ways of education, injustice and wrongdoing are growing wherever you look in the country. Among the educated themselves, today, selfishness, show. Ahaṅkāra and corruption are to be seen; through them there is no good for the country, no well-being. The growth of education must bring a broad outlook: the more Vijñāna grows, the more humility too must grow. At any time at all, to any person at all. When troubles and losses befall, you must stand ready and eager to serve. But a son who mocks the weak, who does not serve his mother and father, and who makes them weep by his bad conduct, his vices and his misdeeds: how can he ever uplift the world?
Students, embodiments of the holy Ātma! Do not sink into such a low state; remember the glory of the culture of Bhārata and uphold the good fortune and the noble character of Bhārata; do not crave outward pleasures of every kind in mind, word and deed; do not be idlers; strive to live as people who toil.