In plain words
Once we recognise that these bad qualities do us harm, if we try to reduce them little by little, then we can count ourselves intelligent. If, even knowing it is wrong, we cannot make a proper effort to cut it down, is our intelligence only fit for burning? What use is this intelligence? So, rather than sinking into Ajñāna of this kind and being called, as Śaṅkara's disciples said, ‘Mūḍhamate, mūḍhamate, mūḍhamate’, all devotees should stand ready for the effort to be called ‘Muktamate, muktamate, muktamate.’ They also say that the feeling of being free of Ahaṅkāra is itself the attainment of Brahman. Nirahaṅkāra means being without Ahaṅkāra. We must inquire how this Ahaṅkāra goes away. Now, aham is always there; only the ākāra must change. That very thing which came with an ākāra is what we today take to be Ahaṅkāra. We think Ahaṅkāra means arrogance, but Ahaṅkāra does not mean arrogance. Ahaṅkāra is there in what is tāmasic. Ahaṅkāra is present in all three times. This Ahaṅkāra drags man into a state of great deformity. It simply swells selfishness, and in the end it makes a person forget his own true nature. So this Ahaṅkāra also creeps in on the strength of certain advantages. Ahaṅkāra can come from beauty. Ahaṅkāra can come from a crowd of followers. Ahaṅkāra can come from caste. Ahaṅkāra does not have just one road. Along any path at all, the moment a person gains a little strength, Ahaṅkāra climbs onto his head. If we look at our beauty, it vanishes all at once, like a flash of lightning. And if we look at followers and wealth, they dazzle us like drifting clouds and at once sink out of sight like a mirage. And if we look at the Ahaṅkāra of authority: when authority will be taken away, when it will grow, who knows; this responsibility is ours only as long as it lasts. After that we are in an ordinary position.