In plain words
Leave the craze for learning only to win degrees; do not go to enlist in the calling of a servant; look to the prosperity of your own land, and in this world study the skills of labour. Teaching the way to bring peace to the world, putting an end to every narrow feeling, bringing about life together in this world and all that goes with it, teaching equality: is that not true learning?
Embodiments of Prema! Students! Teachers! Patrons of education!
From ancient times Bhārata has given other countries ideals and commands of many kinds and brought them lasting peace and prosperity; Bhārata has always laboured to uphold the holy ideal ‘May all the worlds be happy’; yet today Bhārata is falling behind in every field and in every way. It is not good that the people of Bhārata, who should be shaping the very world, are today in thrall to technical learning and slaves to money, roaming as they please. Education teaches two paths. They are: what is life, and how must one live? But today the people of Bhārata forget this supreme goal and this holy path, and follow worldly paths. Today's man has developed science and does no more than fly like the birds and float in the water like the fish, but he is not living as a man. For moving about in the water like the fish and flying like the birds, science is the support; but to live on the earth as a man, the spiritual alone is needed. Science without the spiritual is blind; the spiritual without science is lame. Science without the spiritual is misused. The spiritual without science becomes a laughing-stock. So every man must follow the holy spiritual principle.
Though in science we carry out research of every kind and pursue its inner meanings, we must recognise a little of the spiritual principle too. Man recognises only the outer, and does not recognise the inner. Science says that a ray of light travels a lakh and eighty thousand miles in a second. Such light takes 1/7 of a second to go round the earth. How many years would it take to go round the spheres of the stars, the sun and the moon? In this way creation stays safe because the planets and the stars each keep properly to their own paths. If their speed and timing went astray, creation would be overturned. Is it not proof that there is some divine power that keeps them to their paths and their speed in proper order! Not recognising this divine principle, man wastes his own strength. Whether it is seen or not, this divine power pervades everything everywhere. Many who cannot recognise this Satya deny divinity and make it a laughing-stock. Truly, even if we cannot see this divinity, we can come to know it in certain experiences, can we not! No one can say that what cannot be seen is not there. Throw a thing up into the air, and it is sure to fall down. The earth's force of attraction is the cause of this. The earth below can be seen, but the force of attraction cannot be seen. If it cannot be seen, does that mean it is not there! No, no. It is there. This very thing is divinity. Every man must understand this. Because today's system of education has no moral, dhārmic or spiritual principle, people cannot think of this. It is not right merely to dwell on Macaulay's experiences and forget the greatness of Bhārata, the land of sacrifice. This is not the true education of Bhārata.
To sell whatever property one has, earn a degree and go in search of a job as if wandering with a begging bowl is not the education of Bhārata. The education of Bhārata is what gives sacrifice, discipline, beauty and strength, and the power to stand on one's own feet. The education of Bhārata is precisely what gives the valour, the heroism, the courage and the humanness that can stand up to injustice, wrongdoing and untruth. The education of Bhārata is precisely what gives the strength to offer one's very life to the country, laughing all the while. The education of Bhārata is precisely what gives the discrimination to give up selfishness and develop holiness. The education of Bhārata is precisely what gives yogīs given to sacrifice and workers who can toil.
What use to the country or to the world is a man of Bhārata who cannot cultivate a broad outlook? The saving mantra that will protect the country today is not politics, guns or atom bombs. In the hardened heart of every man of Bhārata, the giving up of selfishness, the spiritual, love of the country and the other kinds of learning, the eight and the sixty, must sprout. On the day we bring our life into sacrifice and into Prema, on that day our country will ring with merry laughter.