In plain words
However much the boy cried, his heart did not melt. The boy came inside and fell at Easwaramma's feet. ‘Why are you crying, my child?’ she asked. ‘Mother! Mr Gokak has suspended me from the classes,’ he said. ‘Don't cry. I shall speak to him,’ she said, and sat down on the path by which Gokak would come. As soon as he came that way, she said, ‘Namaskāram, Gokak.’ ‘Namaskāram, Easwaramma!’ he replied. Then she said: ‘When I said namaskāram to you, you said namaskāram to me too, didn't you! In the same way, if you punish others, that punishment comes back to you as well. That boy did wrong, knowingly or unknowingly. Forgive him.’ Then Gokak: ‘Forgive them, and all the children will go to the bad, Mother! Still, since you have asked, I shall forgive him and let him back into the classes,’ he said. In this way Easwaramma went on helping everyone and doing many sacred deeds.
What we do today is the very thing we shall reap as its result tomorrow. If we speak bad words about others, they come back to us as ‘resound’. If we hurt anyone, it comes back to us as ‘reflection’. So we must not do harm to anyone. We must see good, speak good, do good. Then only good will happen to us in everything. Easwaramma had no schooling, but she knew such things well. Gokak kept safe in his mind the good counsel she gave that day. Later, when he came to Puttaparthi as Vice-Chancellor, he would think of her every day, poor man! ‘Swami! It is as though Easwaramma comes in a dream every day. I live by the words she spoke, to the letter,’ he would say.
We must not revile anyone, hurt anyone or mock anyone. We must love everyone. These very words Easwaramma used to say to everyone. Whoever they may be, we must put into practice what the elders have said.