In plain words
I called you back to wield that authority," she said. Think a little: does this take shape as authority, or as disgrace? In petty feelings of this kind we keep trying to wield authority. We may go into an office as an officer. Or, because you have done an MBA, you may stand as an officer in mills, in factories of some other kind. But you must not wield authority like this there. We must guard our individual character. We must foster national character too. We must follow the path of going about without hurting others and without being hurt. In no situation must we fall into Asatya. This Asatya leads one onto a kind of wrong road. Satya too is a part of character. So in seeking Satya, in speaking Satya and in following Satya, we must take a measure of care. Hariścandra lost everything, but his Satya alone he did not lose. To guard that Satya he sold his wife and son, poor man. He could not even pay the interest money he owed to Nakṣatraka. There was no food to eat. There was no water to drink. How could he pay the interest. His wife in Dharma too kept to that same vow of Satya. She was one who gave her husband the strength he needed in this Satya. Taking the moment when he was sitting alone and brooding, Candramati held his feet.
"By the turn of time all our riches are lost; the wealth that remains is I for you, and you for me. so sell me to whoever has the means, and pay off this debt to the ṛṣi,"
she said. Histories belong to those alone who are ready for such sacrifice. Would any wife say, "Sell me and pay off the debt to the ṛṣi"? Today they say, "You gave it away like a fool; if you must, go off to the forest; I am going to my mother's house." Through such harmony and through forbearance, bringing out sympathy in each other, and following sacrifice without letting go of Satya: that alone is the true mark of history. The histories of such people are there in plenty. So the histories, the histories you want to read, the histories you want to follow: follow the histories of the ancients. The emperor Śibi, the emperor Bali, Dadhīci: all of these made great sacrifice. By such great souls alone the history of India still shines, sacred and resplendent, to this day. Though the ages change and the worlds move, their names alone go on shining in their renown, resplendent. Whether political, or physical, or by what is worldly, for how long are their names heard in our country. Even all such as Einstein, a man of great science, their names are melting away little by little.