In plain words
So such sacred humanness we are forgetting. In ancient times, in the language of the Veda, they likened this to yama, the first of the eight limbs of yoga. Yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, dhāraṇa, dhyāna, samādhi: these are the eight limbs of yoga. Of these the very first is yama. What is yama? Ahiṃsā, Satya, asteya, brahmacarya, aparigraha. In the language of the Vedānta all these five are human values for man. Now what is Ahiṃsā? That Ahiṃsā means only not hurting another: this is what we suppose. Not hurting others in any way. What does this Ahiṃsā mean? Not hurting others with the mind, with speech, with the body, with all these three, in purity of all three instruments: that alone is Ahiṃsā. This is the chief human value. Only one who has won this value becomes fit to experience for himself the second, Satya.
Satya does not mean only what is spoken with the tongue. It is that which the three times cannot negate. It too has to be with purity in the three guṇas. Neither in the mind nor in deeds should you try to show forth Asatya. So what we speak with purity of all three instruments is what we today take to be Satya. This is the second quality of humanness.
Asteya means just this: that we do not seize what belongs to others. It is not only seizing their things with the hands; even in the mind no resolve fit to seize what belongs to others should arise. Even in speech you must not teach anyone to seize what belongs to others. So not seizing what belongs to others, with purity of all three instruments, is asteya. This is the third human value.
Fourth comes brahmacarya. But we have brought it into worldly ways in many forms and keep hearing it with many meanings. That is not its right meaning. Brahmacarya means this: whatever work you do at any time, whatever word you speak, whatever thought you think, it must be a thought filled with the feeling of Brahman. It must be karma of that kind. That is, what is done with the feeling of Brahman is brahmacarya, they said. All these actions, all manner of words, all manner of feelings must be thought of as offered to God. This very thing has been spoken of as 'sarvakarma bhagavatprītyartham'. It is not enough that we are pure with the one body alone, in the acts we hear of in the world today. The body is impermanent. Our karmas are real. Without the mind itself, karmas cannot be done at all. The mind and karmas are bound in a close relationship. That is why karmas joined with feelings of the mind that are eternally true must be for the pleasure of God. When the feeling of God arises, then you cannot step onto a wrong path.