In plain words
Students! Do not swell with pride at the ‘quantity’, saying, “We have studied great studies, we have taken great degrees.” Develop ‘Educare’ in yourselves to raise the ‘quality’. Put the knowledge you have gained into practice, and share it with others. Enquire into what the chief aim of education is. Education is for the supreme goal of life, not for living. You are using education only for living. Is education needed for living? Ants, mosquitoes, beasts and birds, which know no learning of any kind: do they not live? What is the essence of education? Concentration of mind, and not collection of facts. The essence of education is not gathering information about worldly matters. Sunk in this gathering, man is forgetting himself.
What is the supreme goal of education? This is most important. But no one is trying to recognise it. The supreme goal of education is nothing other than the building of character. Education without character is worthless. In olden times the great sages taught their disciples with no distinction of night and day. Wherever they went, they took their disciples along with them. Even while walking along, they gave them teaching. But today's system of education is unlike that. From 8 in the morning to 12 noon, then from 2 to 5 … Fixing hours in this way, they teach lessons to the students. All this is limited knowledge. But the wealth of character has no limit. In daily life it must be reflected in your words and in your conduct. Your words must be pure, gentle, and such as cause no pain to others. In every task you do, you must use discrimination. For example, if you are to cook a seer of rice, how big a vessel is needed? How much fire must you make? Discrimination that asks this is needed. You must change the vessel to suit the food, and the food to suit the vessel. You must make a fire fit for the cooking, and cook to fit the fire.
In the same way, in your daily life you must do every task using discrimination. Only then is the wealth of character gained.