In plain words
The feeling in man joined with the faith ‘I’, this thought, the form made of such feelings, the principle of Cit: to believe this to be the very form of the Ātma, to experience Ānanda and share it with others, that is the nature of sacred lives.
Only when we recognise the inner meaning of the mahāvākyas Ahaṃ brahmāsmi, Prajñānaṃ brahma, Ayam ātmā brahma and Tat tvam asi, believe these true sayings and put them into practice, can we recognise the form of the Ātma. From ancient times our people of Bhārata lived many kinds of ideals, recognised what was chief in them, this, the essence, and understood too that character is the chief thing of all, the root. If they lost wealth, they were not much troubled. Even if they lost their health, they did not grieve. They felt that after going through some hardships of one kind or another they could earn both this health and this wealth. But if character was lost, they grieved as if life itself were gone. So it is most necessary for the modern students of today, boys and girls, to recognise these three truths and act on them. If wealth is lost nothing is lost. If health is lost something is lost. If character is lost everything is lost. They took this true saying as their ground, and carried on their lives. But the modern students of today, not recognising their own feelings, give way to freedom without limit, lose their course, spoil their minds and come to a bad end. They are turning this sacred principle of those days onto the backward road. When you put a car, a bus or a train into reverse gear and drive it, it goes backward, not forward. The students of today are travelling in this reverse gear. ‘If character is lost nothing is lost,’ they say. ‘If wealth is lost something is lost,’ they say. ‘If health is lost everything is lost,’ they say. What is this health? But health is wealth. What is health for? If this body enters the good path, into good karmas, then this health is needed indeed. It is better for this body, which leads into wickedness and bad conduct, to go than to remain. The thought that a body which cannot fulfil its humanness is worthless is a very good thought indeed. So the body's health is not the chief thing.