In plain words
These kinds of learning are themselves impermanent. Positions are themselves impermanent. These researches are themselves petty. By what means can you gain fame in such a lasting way. It is not yet forty years since self-rule came. Where is it, the name and fame of these great souls: do we hear it anywhere. Is the name and fame of these men of sacrifice heard at all. Of what age is Hariścandra. Of what age is Satyavanta. Of what age is Dharmarāja. But even today they are shining on, living and resplendent. They alone are the immortals. Theirs alone is the immortal life. Theirs alone is the nature that has won the renown of history. Such people alone are the ācāryas. So following the nature of those who are such ācāryas, and their footsteps, is the duty of every man.
Today, above all, we have recognised the truth that only those in whom national character and individual character have come together are ideal men. Little by little we may recognise those people and speak of them. Above all, all the children of our Institute must take up national character as well as individual character. We must love the country. We must wish for the country's welfare. We must make sacrifice for the country. We must make it firm in ourselves: "Being born in this country, this alone is my duty." This is my mother tongue. We must be ready to say, beating our breast, "This is my country." Mine is sacred India. My country is a land of sacrifice. A land of tapas. We must develop the broad feeling: “I who am born in such a land must not take to a narrow path, so petty, so small.” The food we eat is India's. All the water we drink is India's. The country we live in is India. All the air we breathe is the very atmosphere of India. Enjoying these five elements, do we not need to show gratitude to India, which is these five elements? That is why Gāndhī too said so. You must use only the cloth of your own country, only its goods. He said, you must not use foreign goods. What is the reason? With the thought that if we go on using foreign goods we will all forget our country, trust only the foreign land and make that alone our support, he went on teaching the way of giving them up. He said, to win self-rule we must use only the goods of our own country. My intention too is the same. To win svārājya too, we must use only the goods of our own country. If you ask what that thing of our own country is, the Ātma itself is the thing of our own country. Manas, Buddhi, citta and antaḥkaraṇa: all these are nothing but foreign goods. They are things that will change one day. They are things that will collapse one day. The thing of our own country is that very Ātma. Our own country is the country of the Ātma. We must follow this country of the Ātma, and not all these foreign goods. I bless you, that believing it is the chief duty of students to give up Manas, Buddhi, citta and antaḥkaraṇa and to fix their aim on this Ātma, you may show forth the ideal.