In plain words
Only when we recognise the inner meaning of the mahāvākyas ‘Ahaṃ brahmāsmi’, ‘Prajñānaṃ brahma’, ‘Ayamātma brahma’ and ‘Tattvamasi’, put our faith in these true sayings and put this into practice, does it become possible to recognise the form of the Ātma. To believe the principle of the citta to be of the form of the Ātma, to experience Ānanda and to share it with others: this is the very nature of sacred lives.
The body that cannot make humanness fruitful is worthless
From ancient times our people of Bhārata lived by many kinds of ideal paths, recognised the chief essence in them, and understood that character is the chief thing of all, the root. They were not the kind to grieve when wealth was lost. Nor did they worry when health was lost. They held that by some means or other, with hard work, wealth and health could be earned back. But when character was lost, they grieved as though life itself were lost. It is essential that the students of today, young men and young women, recognise these truths well and live by them. If wealth is lost, nothing is lost. If health is lost, something is lost. If character is lost, everything is lost. On just these true words they based their lives, and carried them on. But the modern students of today, not recognising their own feelings, give way to freedom beyond all limits, stray from their course, spoil their understanding and suffer a sorry end. They set the sacred maxim of those days on the road backwards. If a car, a bus, a train or a plane is put into reverse gear and driven on, it goes backward, not forward. Students today are travelling in reverse gear. ‘If character is lost, nothing is lost,’ they say. ‘If health is lost, something is lost,’ they say. But ‘If wealth is lost, everything is lost,’ they say.