In plain words
Seeing this shadow, can anyone say, “It is so-and-so”? So you may say that some man is coming, but you cannot say, “It is so-and-so.” This is anumāna-pramāṇa. Now the third is śabda-pramāṇa. What this śabda-pramāṇa means is this: some people come to Prasanthi Nilayam, take in for themselves its buildings, its atmosphere and its sights, go back to those who have not come, and say, “Prasanthi Nilayam is like this, it is like that”; that is just a śabda-pramāṇa. For the one who has come to know to tell the one who does not know what he has come to know: that is śabda-pramāṇa. That too is the Veda. The Veda is śabda-pramāṇa. So it is most essential that every man who does not know should take the pramāṇas the Veda gives as pratyakṣa-pramāṇas, and act by them.
If he tries to find out what the pratyakṣa of this is, he fails. In every matter of life they have come to believe that this pratyakṣa-pramāṇa alone is śāstra. This śabda-pramāṇa is beyond doubt. Among these pramāṇas there are two kinds of pramāṇa. The Vedic pramāṇa and the worldly pramāṇa. The worldly pramāṇa has not spoken of God. Only the Vedic pramāṇa takes it upon itself to explain about God. The pramāṇa that belongs to śāstra is the worldly pramāṇa. But what is this śāstra? It brings back within hearing what had passed out of hearing. It brings back to memory what was forgotten. That which brings back to memory what was forgotten is śāstra. This very śāstra-pramāṇa they have taken, in many ways, as Dharma-pramāṇas. These Dharmas too are of many kinds. Jāti-Dharma, deśa-Dharma, kula-Dharma, guṇa-Dharma, āpad-Dharma: so they are named. They are of five kinds. All these Dharmas have taught compassion for beings, and that alone. It has held compassion for beings to be the foremost Dharma. It has held love for beings to be the foremost love of God. One who has no love for beings will not come to love God either. One who has no love of God will not gain fear of sin either. One who has neither this fear of sin nor love of God will not have morality in society either. Another word for Dharma is morality. Morality means simply good behaviour, good conduct. Morality, they said, is just this: the good practice of conducting oneself in keeping with place, time and society. You must conduct yourself in keeping with society as well. Not to do karmas that go against society: that is the Veda's pramāṇa.
Man is born in society, grows up in society, lives in society and comes to his end in society. So the Veda has been teaching that keeping the rules of society is most essential. So we must take it that to conduct ourselves in keeping with place, time and society, and that alone, is true morality.