In plain words
‘Who is knocking at the door?’ asked the younger brother. ‘It is I, the elder brother, lad,’ he said. ‘Why have you come?’ he said. ‘When I was leaving, I did not tell you to put out the lamp. So I came, thinking the lamp might be burning,’ he said. The younger brother said, ‘Brother, have I not that much sense! The moment you left, I put out the lamp. But you went three miles and came back. Walking six miles, how worn the sandals must be! You did not think of that.’ Then the elder brother says, ‘Little brother! Am I a fool? I tied the sandals in a bundle and carried them under my arm!’ If there is greed of this kind, what are these sandals for? What is this wealth and grain for, if one has no comfort from it? You must give happiness to others. Or at least you must be happy yourself. What use is money that has neither of these two?
You are pursuing your studies. Pursuing these studies is not for the sake of jobs. You must put this education to good use in society, in our village. You must use your education for the welfare of society. There is no use merely in studying and taking degrees. That is only a begging bowl. For holding the degree as a bowl, it goes to every office and begs, ‘A job, a job.’ Our education must make the effort that lets us stand on our own feet. Self-effort must come about. We must provide the facilities our village needs. We must grow in our village the vegetables needed every day. We must have drains built. There are poor people in the village. We must teach them cleanliness. We must see that diseases do not come. We must teach little children the learning we have acquired. We must help others. Today, as soon as we take big degrees, we go to the employment office and have ourselves registered. When that goes too far, we apply to foreign countries. This is not at all the mark of our education. We must sustain our village. You were born in your village. You grew up in the village. You studied in the village. All these powers are what your village gave you. Your society gave them. So is there no need to offer gratitude to society! We were born in society, we grew up in society itself, and in society itself we come to our end. We must give society the gratitude it deserves.
Today students are losing such broad feelings. I and my people. But what of the rest of the people? All are children of God. All are brothers. Among ourselves, without any kind of discord, we must rise with a spirit of forbearance. We must foster forbearance and sympathy.