In plain words
But today, because parents do not give a proper example, children are going astray. In the past, mothers gave their children good teaching and trained them in good habits.
“As soon as the cock crows its cock-a-doodle-doo, get up briskly from your bed; brush your teeth, ease the body's needs, bathe, put on clothes and eat the morning's cold rice; chewing well whatever is wholesome, eat in measure, and it will do you good; go to school and learn your lessons with care, and be known as a modest boy; never go roaming about in the damp; never go near the dirty pools; running, chedugudu and games with a ball, keep at them at the proper hours; if you heed the ways above, you will enjoy the blessing of health.”
So they used to teach their children. Today elders and children alike do not brush their teeth clean. That is why all illnesses spring from none other than ourselves. Good or bad, we ourselves bring it on; it does not come of its own accord. When this body was in its seventh year, infectious diseases such as cholera and plague spread through the village of Puttaparthi. I kept warning the children that such diseases spread from drinking polluted water and eating impure food. “Make the water clean before you drink it. Even if it is only a little, never mind; take only pure food.