In plain words
It has sunk into hollows like a Castor oil face. You must always be happy. You must stay watchful. You must stay brisk. Whatever work you set out to do, you must go forward with care. Only then will proper security and Śānti come about. Only because those who work like this are few in the country today do we have to depend on foreign countries. Just once, turn and look back. The British brought Bhārata under their sway, we say; how did they do it? With Pakistan and Bhārata together, the population was 48 crores, 50 years ago. How many were the British? Not even one crore. How did so small a country as Britain bring so vast a country as Bhārata under its sway? This happened only because the people of Bhārata betrayed themselves. They gave in for money. For selfish ends and their own gain they offered up their bodies. They became idlers who could not work. So they easily seized this country. In truth we are like elephants. ‘Just as the elephant knows nothing of its own strength’: the elephant does not know how much strength it has. If it strikes with its tail, a man falls 90 feet away. Though it has such strength, if the mahout so much as shows it the goad once, it cowers, poor thing! What is the reason? It does not know its own strength. In the same way, in every boy, in every person, there is great power. There is ever so much power. In a single minute you can do anything. You can win any victory, however great. If you resolve on it, nothing is to be found in the world that you cannot achieve. You can achieve it. But he is not making the effort needed to bring that power forth in himself. If it tries to fly, the garuḍa bird goes any number of miles. But if it has no wish to fly, it cannot go even one step forward. The ant is small. If it tries to walk, it walks on for any number of miles. Tyāgarāja described the power of the ant:
in the ant, in Brahmā, in Śiva, Keśava and the rest, dwelling with Prema overflowing: O Sītārāma, who bear that title, protect me! O Rāma, protect me!