In plain words
… worship many deities, they do not know that God is one alone: such misconceptions are a great mistake. In truth, the teaching that God, who is the form of all the deities, is one alone has been the faith of the people in Bhārata itself, from time without beginning.
They did not set apart a presiding deity for each calling and a presiding deity for each task. Believing that all the deities are only the special powers of the one God, they offered worship. They beheld divinity in all things moving and unmoving, in inert objects, in every living being, in beasts, birds, worms, insects and the rest. The man who drives a lorry, before he takes the steering wheel, bows to it and prays to God that the journey may go without mishap. Whatever his religion may be, he does not move forward without praying to God. The smith, the potter, the carpenter, the singer, the sculptor, the man of letters who writes books, the scholar: all are the same; every one of them shows a spiritual feeling. What is the inner meaning of this? The world beyond comes first; the material, after! Westerners do not understand this. They mock, saying that Bhāratīyas worship trees, hills, stones and paper as God. Bhāratīyas are not foolish; theirs is not stupidity; it is nothing but a sacred feeling, the very mark of full Jñāna. Their feeling is that even a stone is God, not that God is a stone. ‘Īśāvāsyam idaṃ sarvaṃ.’ All is nothing but God; everything is only a part, a limb, of that universal Virāṭ-svarūpa. Every karma and every undertaking is nothing but an offering to God; without God's grace nothing happens. So, whatever work you begin, you must without fail perform the worship of God as a necessity.
The principle of the Ātma, which is beyond them all, is itself the basis of the senses, the Manas, the citta, the Buddhi and Ahaṅkāra. Keeping it in remembrance, you must go on accomplishing karmas. The people themselves supported the learned and the teachers of those days, and not merely for the sake of a living; they held that teaching the principle of the Ātma was itself the fulfilment of their birth; the teachers and the students were alike in this. They longed eagerly to learn that very thing. Kings who encouraged scholars by granting them agrahāras, people who honoured them, took their counsel and walked in just that way: such was the selfless life of those days. The teachers looked upon their disciples, their sons of Prema, with affection, just as they did the sons born to them of desire. They were all given to sacrifice, people who lived by hard toil; no one, not even the government, would take action against them. For to them, toil itself was wealth. They were full of Ānanda, heroes in action.
In those days, even the learning that students longed for and acquired was not for the sake of a job. The wealth of good qualities must grow; purity of citta must be won. Their aim was to gain the strength and ability to give service to the country, to society and to the family. The one who gives in to desires is truly poor; the one who has found contentment and fulfilment is rich. Students today must learn the ways of supporting their mother and father and making them content. You must not belittle them as people without learning; they may not have knowledge of books. But they have knowledge of the heart. You must not torment them, cause them pain and make them shed tears; you must love them, honour them and serve them. You must not spurn them, abuse them and dishonour them. With everyone you must behave with humility and obedience.