In plain words
It is thus the Veda that shows the oneness in the many. 'You must not teach it.' 'You must recite it.' 'You are fit for it.' 'You are not fit for it': no one has the authority to decide this. Among the people of those days there were none at all of these castes, varṇas, religions and classes of today. Even today they do not exist. But some people with narrow feelings have encouraged it in many ways, fostered it, and have gone on dividing it in many ways. The five elements are forms of the Paramātma. When the Paramātma Himself has no difference, why should this jīvātma have difference? The Paramātma has no castes of this kind. No religions. The Paramātma is everywhere. He has no end. These five elements have no divisions of any kind. What is the religion of water? What is the caste of fire? What is the caste of air? What is the caste of the sky? Do we not enjoy them free of caste? Before drinking water, does anyone stop to ask what the caste of the water is, and then drink?
With nothing but this sense of difference that belongs to the body and senses, they keep fostering narrow feelings of this kind. All the works done in this steadfast practice of karma keep fostering oneness. So today we must not give room even to such differences: God is one. Bodies are many. We must believe in the Divinity that is one in the many. Only when you gain such unity shall we be able to understand the divine principle of the Ātma. Just because unity is scattered, the principle of the Ātma moves far away. Because the feelings of tyāga move away, the feelings of disease keep growing. That is precisely why we must follow the feeling of tyāga in a special way.
When we inquire into the world in certain ways, we come to understand that these are things formed by the guṇas. The world is made of the three guṇas. For man, born in Prakṛti, the three guṇas too are what matters most. But we must inquire which guṇas should be given what fitness, at which times, in which situations, on which occasions. Just because there are guṇas, one must not divide it up recklessly, as one pleases. Black, they said, is tamoguṇa. Red, they said, is rajoguṇa. White, they said, is sāttvika. We experience all these every day with the sunrise itself. Before sunrise, black. Darkness spreads over the whole world. As it rises little by little, it turns red. That red colour, when it takes on its full blaze, turns white.
On this basis, before birth everyone is a śūdra. Black. Tamoguṇa. As soon as he is born, rajoguṇa. That is, he keeps longing for food and drink, for joy and amusement. He keeps getting bound by desires. He knows no sense, no state, no way of any kind for this. He looks only to his own state.