The first group consists of persons who keep society in a healthy condition by building factories, conducting commerce and trade, and thus providing the rest of society with employment and means of honest livelihood. The second group protects society from all harm by maintaining discipline and order as well as protecting it against danger from external agencies. The third group instructs and educates society so as to provide it with good, enlightened and useful citizens. In modern terminology, these three are (i) the industrialists and Businessmen (ii) the police and military and (iii) the teachers, professors, literary men and so on. Each of these three groups is equally important and dependent on the other two because they are like the three legs of a tripod. If any one of these three legs is shorter or weaker than the others, the tripod becomes unstable and unsafe. But if all the three legs are equal in size and in strength, one can fix on it a seat and use it as a stool. What gives strength and stability to these legs is Prema with Samatva Bhavam, or doing one’s duty with Love and Faith in the Divinity of all. This transforms our duty into service to society, and our work into Yoga, or spiritual sadhana. The Lord then bears on Himself the burden of providing wealth to such workers and also looks after the overall well-being of society’. (WDL, pp. 104-106)
You must all become an army of dharmic workers, equipped with the weapons of satya, dharma, shanti and prema, to revive humanity and rid it of all the ills with which it is now stricken. (SSS Vol.2)
Very often individuals (and even institutions) trespass into the realm of others, compete with fellow workers, and sometimes try to establish superiority, by means fair or foul. Power and position have to be deserved, before they are desired. (SSS Vol.9)
Strikes everywhere for everything by everybody - from the cooks in the kitchen to the custodians of law and order! The interests of the owner and the workers, the employer and the employees are intertwined; one cannot thrive without the other; they have to be of each other. Problems and tangles are bound to arise; both parties have the right and duty to solve them by mutual consultations and adjustments.
The owner is the heart of the organisation; those who work in it, in the various fields of activity necessary to carry out its objectives are the limbs. The heart has to keep the limbs active; the limbs have to sustain the heart. Only these two are kin; only they are involved in the endeavour; the co-ordination is between these two, no third part; can set the problems aright. It is best to solve problems mutually, in love and with understanding. The welfare of both should not be hampered by ignorance or emotion. (SSS Vol.11)
Three categories of people support and sustain human society – those who produce, those who guard and those who guide – the workers, the soldiers and the teachers – theKarshaka, the Rakshaka, and Sikshaka. A society can be strong only when those who produce the food, clothing and shelter are well equipped and active, when the guardians of law and order and those in charge of the frontiers are patriotic and skilled, and when those who open the eyes of children and unfold their innate richness are full of love and understanding.
These three are like the three legs of a tripod. But as a mere structure with three legs the tripod cannot be useful and efficient. The people who are the concern and under the care of the three categories form the plank on top of the three. The seat has to be screwed tight to the legs – the screws being peace, love and truth and the process of screwing and tightening being the eager enthusiasm for progress, prosperity, security and unity, the sincere effort to accept and promote the human values - Truth, Right Conduct, Peace, Non-violence and Love. These five values are as essential for a full and worthwhile life as a five vital airs or Pranas mentioned in the scriptures. (SSS Vol.19)