In plain words
But this Dharmaja, even after three days, four days, did not recite it to the guru. One day Dhṛtarāṣṭra came there, asking, ‘How are my children?’ All of them are learning well. The guru complained to him that only Dharmaja was not learning so quickly. Then Dhṛtarāṣṭra spoke! If Dharmaja himself, the eldest, who must bear the responsibilities in the days to come, falls behind in this learning, it will be very hard. So he told the guru to give him special training and drill him in a special way, said it to the guru firmly, and went away. Then, because Dhṛtarāṣṭra had said this, the guru grew still bolder and set about punishing Dharmaja in many ways. However much he was told, he did not recite the lesson. One day the guru brought a cane and beat Dharmaja soundly. Blood came out there. He struck again on the very blood. ‘Abbā!’ he said, ‘I have not learnt it yet.’ That is, the Śānti Dharmaja learnt was this: he took Śānti to be a mind that does not waver however many blows are struck and however one is punished, and he said that reciting the lesson that was taught is not Śānti. That is only outward study; Dharmaja showed in practice that he was developing inner study. We may say that learning means such learning as reaches the seat of the heart; but all the children of today, when exams come, put the contents of the books into their heads, empty everything in their heads into the examination hall and come home with an empty head. After the Exam, is there anyone who can answer even one question? No one can answer. What work can such studies do in the future? What can we achieve? There is no way to achieve it. We have emptied the studies we studied into the exams and come away. We sit there empty. With this empty head, what great deeds can we do? Our learning must not be put into the head; it must be put into the heart. We must make what is called the heart into a negative. However many times we take photographs, the negative must remain a negative still.
Students! As for your other studies, even if you do not make the seat of your heart a negative for them, there is no great hurry. Take the things you have received over these days of the month into the seat of your heart.