In plain words
Tomorrow they will wither; but the thread that supports them is thread yesterday, thread today, thread tomorrow. The flowers are many; the thread is one. So it is with us. All our bodies, which wither, drop and fall away, are like the flowers. For a while childhood, for a while more adolescence, for a while more youth. After that, old age. Our bodies are just like flowers that change with time in this way; but in all these flowers, the thread that is their support goes on revealing itself as divinity. Without that very thread called divinity, we could never all come together in one place. The thread is one, the flowers are many. Beings are many; God is one. That is why, whatever the race, the religion, the region or the country, the race called humanness is joined in all of them to the Ātma principle, which is divinity. Divinity is beyond place, time and person. In this Campus where you have gathered today, people who have come from many countries and from many States have gathered here. This Campus is a Nandana garden full of flowers of many colours. But though the countries differ, the languages differ, the persons differ and the regions differ, our experience, our training and our ideal keep showing themselves to be one. Now, we must recognise the three principles that are foremost for our office. The very first is Duty. The second is Discipline. The third is Devotion. When we try to live out in our lives this triad of the letter D, Discipline, Devotion and Duty, we become people who have recognised our duty as well. Of these, for the Police department Discipline is very much needed. This Police job is one bound up with much toil, with many troubles and losses, and with countless hardships. Truly, you stand as the guardians of the nation. Among Police who are guardians like this, discipline above all is what we must develop. To this discipline our devotion too must come welling up, with a feeling from deep within. We must keep carrying out this, our chief duty. Today in the world, whatever studies one has pursued and whatever training one has gone to: in what direction will my future lie? In which region will life be comfortable? So people go on hoping for their personal comfort and their convenience; but “What happiness comes to this country through me? What happiness comes to this society?” People who long in that way are rarely to be found. Man tries to live with only his own selfish future as his aim, but he gives no thought at all to the principle of well-being that is for others, for the world and for society. As long as we keep our responsibility within our selfishness, so long will our country have no welfare at all. Only when we give up selfishness and long for the prosperity of the country, the welfare of the country and the peace of the world will welfare come to us, to our society and to our country. This is what the Veda declared: “Not by karma, not by progeny, not by wealth; by tyāga some have attained immortality.” True welfare for us lies in tyāga alone; in any kind of enjoyment there is no welfare at all. On one side we eat food.