In plain words
At that time, this body of Mine was nine years old. Then I said:
At the end of the left arm, what is this gleaming white disc? They tie it with a leather strap and let it dangle. What get-ups are these, friend, guises only for the eye to look at: what get-ups are these, friend!
That is, when someone tied some white disc on with a leather strap and let it dangle, people were quite bewildered, as if to say, “Why are they wearing this?” But those who recognised the inner meaning in it, then or now, are very few. Even today we think of it as something for beauty and for telling the time, but we do not recognise the inner meaning that is in that watch. I have been explaining this in many ways too.
This is WATCH. Five letters; and it is not only five letters. Five prāṇas. These are not only the five prāṇas. The five-letter mantra. People recite Namaśivāya as the five-letter mantra. No. No. WATCH: this is the five-letter mantra. How can one tell that it is a mantra? For this W we said, watch your word. It is not babbling whatever comes to the mouth. Babble that hurts others is not for you to use. Is every word that comes from your mouth true or not? Through these words, is there any wound to the heart of others or not; do the words I use bring others to any kind of sorrow, or do they give joy? Is this word, too, pleasing? Is it agitating? Is it unpleasant? So, with the resolve that my words must be pleasing, useful, a joy to others, and true, we must keep watching each word. This W warns us, telling us to watch every word spoken from the mouth. O man! This W tells you to warn your tongue: you were given a sacred tongue, and you have no right at all to babble as you please. This is what Satya is. Speech goes with Satya. So, first of all, watch your word: it keeps warning you to make this Satya, the first value, your foundation.