In plain words
Those with intelligence look into matters. Ordinary people go on consulting about the matter. Small-minded people go on about persons. To go on about persons is very wrong. For us to keep criticising the matter is wrong too. Every matter and every karma has some cause. That cause is the result of karma. So every person must believe that, whatever the result, the karma behind it is its cause. Believing this, we must try to do good karma. Whether anyone sees or not, we must ask ourselves, “Does my karma satisfy my conscience?” If we go on doing bad karma thinking, “No one saw it, no one will know,” others may not see, but “Though others do not know, does God not know?” Whether others see or not, God's eyes are always there, in the house, at your side, at your heels, before your eyes. So we must keep our conduct on the right path. “One without self-control is no Vedāntin,” they said. That is, if we cannot grasp even these worldly matters, how can we grasp Vedānta? We cannot grasp it. We who cannot even try to grasp the most ordinary worldly matters: how then will it be possible to grasp perfect Jñāna?
We are trying to bring Śānti to this world. How can one who cannot send his gaze into the inmost depths of life, who does not see the vast principle of Jñāna, be fit to bring Śānti to the world? The nature of the individual is the strength of society. The strength of society is the strength of the nation. So the individual, society and the nation together have the form of the Trimūrti. Without the individual there is no society. Without society there is no nation. So only when you grow as an individual, only when you find fulfilment as an individual, will you be one who has shaped society. Today we are trying to build up more and more cleverness. Rather than boundless cleverness that is inert, a little cleverness that is alive is enough. Today all our cleverness has taken an inert form. But consciousness has come to a standstill. Even limited cleverness is enough, but it must be alive with consciousness. That is, it must issue in action. So every little thing we know, we must try to put into practice and do good to others by it.
So, students! For our good and bad, our happiness and sorrow, our joy and delight, gain and loss, our fame and honour, our karmas are the cause. So we must do good karma.