In plain words
Time that has passed does not come back to us. The time to come is not ours. We must make the time we have fruitful. We must enter into good deeds. The President of our Bhārata, Shankar Dayal Sharma, said that this service alone is the chief thing. What use is wealth, however much there is? We must serve our fellow men. ‘I do not want positions and power. I need ask for no happiness and Śānti; I want nothing. O God! Grant me the service of man,’ he asked. Merely by performing yajñas, yāgas and such rites we cannot attain divinity. By practising good deeds such as charity and almsgiving we cannot attain Śānti. Only when we recognise the principle of the Ātma, give up Ahaṅkāra and gird our loins for the service of society, can we attain Śānti. Service roots out Ahaṅkāra. It makes one recognise the principle of life well. It takes joy in the cooperation of fellow men. That is precisely why:
Sahanāvavatu sahanaubhunaktu sahavīryaṃ karavāvahai
so it runs. What is the meaning in this mantra?
Together, as one, let us move; together, as one, let us grow; together, as one, let us build up wealth and friendship, strength and virtue; together, as one, let us nourish the understanding we have gained; together, as one, let us live as friends, with plenty;
This alone is the divine essence of the Veda. In it no difference of religion and no religious doctrine is to be found at all. ‘Sahanāvavatu’: all must be together. We must not give the slightest room to differences of caste and religion. Where is there room for them? When God Himself has no differences of caste and religion, where did they come to man from? What caste has the sky? What caste has the wind?