In plain words
Learning is man's surpassing beauty, a wealth kept hidden and secret; learning brings enjoyment, fame and happiness; learning is the guru of gurus; learning is a kinsman when one goes to foreign lands; learning is the supreme deity; learning is honoured by kings, not wealth; a man without learning is a beast.
Students, embodiments of Prema! Teachers! Lovers of learning!
Man's beauty is learning. Man's hidden wealth is learning. Learning is itself enjoyment. Learning is a greater guru than all the gurus. When we travel to foreign lands, learning stands by us like a great kinsman. Learning is another eye; it is vision. What kings worship is learning, not wealth. The man who has not been blessed with such holy, divine learning is no different from a beast.
If he has not tasted the nectar of Satya, he passes for nothing but a wooden doll; not knowing Dharma, he becomes a demon, so how can he become a man of noble ways? He who has not won Śānti is nothing but a tiger, so how can he be a man, without a heart? A man without Prema is nothing but a cracked desert, so is he a human being? So, to win these four qualities without a lapse, with firm resolve, is the highest learning; what learning is greater than this, you good people, members of this assembly, honoured for your virtues?
Embodiments of Prema!
Learning is the very visible form of Satya, which is the root and support of the gross world, of the world of living beings, of the realm of the mind and of the life of society. Learning is what gives the courage and firmness of mind, and the strength, to face the problems and the challenges that rise before us in daily life. It is learning that gives shape to the names and forms of creation. Only when one recognises the principle of the divine mind does a bond of close kinship form between the world, society and all the powers that lie within oneself. Divine learning is that which shows the whole human race to be one family.