In plain words
Learning is this alone: that pure feeling should arise; study is this alone: that gracious virtues are gained; forbearance is the very feeling that holds all as equal; this word of Sāī is a word that makes Satya known. As fire is present in firewood, as oil shines forth in sesame seeds, so the blessed One who is all Ātma fills everything everywhere: do not forget this good word.
Students! Girls!
However many kinds of learning you study, however high the offices you hold, however many pleasures and riches you enjoy, if the one value of humanness is missing, all of these are of no use. Only when there is harmony and coordination among the different spheres of life does life become meaningful. The chief education is to harmonise, in keeping with the present day, the ancient traditions and the culture that shine in life as eternal truths, and to protect them. It is because such sacred, eternally true feelings are missing in students today that the hearts of students grow foul, fall into unrest, become subject to discontent, and they lead a life thrown into disorder. All the time the minds of students are filled and packed tight with bad feelings, with bad thoughts and with bad deeds. What is the reason for this? It is that no proper effort is made to be freed of it. It is that human values are not rightly understood. What are these human values? Yama and niyama. Only when the inner meaning of these two is recognised does humanness come to its fulfilment.
Yama means Ahiṃsā, Satya, asteya, brahmacarya and aparigraha. Ahiṃsā means not to hurt any living being, with the purity of the three instruments, by mind, word and body. Man is not able to attain to so sacred an action. For his own selfish ends and his own profit he hurts many people. The Ahaṅkāra that says “I” and the attachment that says “mine”: these two alone are the root cause of every calamity. Only when Ahaṅkāra and attachment are rooted out is there a chance for humanness to grow. So Ahiṃsā means that we must take care not to hurt any living being, not only by words and not only by the mind but in actions as well.