In plain words
In humanity today the power of intellect is running beyond all bounds. But character, for its part, is not growing even the least bit. Man today has developed science and technology on a vast scale and roams the sky like the birds. He has learnt to move through the water like a fish. With a most skilful intellect he has learnt to roam the sky like the birds and to move through the water like a fish. But man is not learning to live on the earth as man.
To recognise the unity in the many is man's foremost duty
Man must learn to live on the earth; learning to fly in the sky has brought no fruit at all. For man, the earth alone is the support. We must not think that man's intelligence has grown merely because he has left the earth that supports him and learnt to roam the sky. This is nothing but a delusion. A song that has lost the beat, and the breaking of a word once given, are of no use at all. In the intelligence of today, clever men who divide the one into the many are flourishing. Today they are forgetting the intelligence and the qualities that recognise the unity present in the many. To recognise the unity in the many is man's foremost duty; to divide the one into the many is the mark of a petty mind. To cut a cloth that is whole into many pieces is easy; to make one of what lies in many pieces is hard. Ānanda and benefit alike come only in that unity. In this humanness we must recognise the balance of both diversity and unity. Here are the students. If they want to have a Shirt stitched, they take along 2 mtrs cloth. The 2 mtrs is all in one piece. They go to the tailor. The tailor has to stitch a bush coat. Then the tailor cuts the two metres of cloth into pieces. Unless he cuts it into these pieces, no bush coat is made. The sleeves must be separate, the collar separate, the pocket separate. In all of them the cloth looks different. But what is it that cuts this 2 mtrs cloth into many pieces?