In plain words
What use is that? They must reason with one another and enquire which is right and which is wrong. Above all, in the matter of the children's studies, parents must act with great care. What books are they reading? That must be watched. We think, ‘The boy is reading his textbook, that's all right.’ But he may have tucked some silly novel inside that textbook. That is his crazy taste! We must take that silly book away at once and throw it out. Only when we watch all such things carefully and correct the children can they make good progress.
‘Don't waste money, don't waste food, don't waste energy, don't waste time.’ This is precisely what ‘ceiling on desires’ means. This brings man to progress in full measure. But today the elders have no ‘ceiling on desires’, and the children have none either. They are wasting a great deal of money. If they arrange some dinner, they spend several lakhs on it. To misuse money in this way is not good. Likewise, we must not waste food either. What is left after we have eaten we must give to some poor people; we must not throw it away to waste. When we give to someone, however much joy they feel, we too gain twice that joy. Many, after eating, throw away plenty from their plates, but to the hungry they do not give even a little.
Whether in food or in money, we must keep a limit to each and every thing. Then great good comes to us ourselves. We must speak in moderation. We must not waste time. To waste time is to waste life itself! Today many people are misusing money. Misuse of money is evil. If there is need, you may spend; but when there is no need, may you spend idly just because there is money in your pocket? Is that not wrong? Some, because they draw a good salary, spend it however they like. When they go in for show, those of the lower classes too, seeing them, go in for show, and as the money they get is not enough, they demand that wages be raised. We must not be the cause of their going astray in this way.