In plain words
Without Satya, Dharma, Prema and Śānti, to learn every kind of learning is worth nothing; Without Satya, Dharma, Prema and Śānti, gifts and charities have no meaning; Without Satya, Dharma, Prema and Śānti, holding high office bears no fruit; Without Satya, Dharma, Prema and Śānti, the gain of many good deeds is nothing. To keep this mansion of the eternal Dharma standing, these four virtues are its foundation walls, my friends; what more than this could I make known, O members of this assembly, good and honoured for your virtues!
Embodiments of Prema!
Human life rests on four qualities. Satya, Dharma, Śānti and Prema: these four qualities alone are the fine, firm foundations of the mansion of life. From ancient times the culture of Bhārata has moved forward resting on these four qualities alone. Every person's parents, and grandparents and great-grandparents too, have lived from time without beginning taking these four qualities alone as their support. Without these four qualities the mansion of life collapses in a moment. Even today people are able to live at least this peacefully only because they live resting to some extent on Satya, Dharma, Śānti and Prema. The life of individuals rests on the qualities of their parents. Jijabai, resting on such qualities, brought up Shivaji. For Rāma to become God, Kausalyā's qualities alone were the ground. For the twins Kuśa and Lava to become such heroes, the power of the qualities of their mother Sītādevī alone was the ground. Yet today some people treat their parents with neglect. They give not the least value to their qualities and their influence. By the qualities of Putlibai alone Gandhi was transformed into a Mahātma. This Putlibai would eat nothing each day without hearing the call of the cuckoo. While the mother did not eat, it was not possible for the son to eat.
One day it became twelve noon, it became one o'clock, it became three o'clock. But the mother did not get ready for her meal. Then Gandhi hit on a trick. He went behind the house and kept calling like a cuckoo himself. He came back inside: “Mother, the cuckoo has called, didn't you hear it? Come, let us eat now,” he said. Then that mother was deeply pained. “Has such a wicked son been born of my womb! For the sake of a bellyful of food alone he deceives me with a lie! He calls like a cuckoo with his own mouth and lies that the cuckoo has called,” she said, and in anger she dragged her son by the ear.