In plain words
Satyaṃ paramaṃ tapaḥ. There is no other tapas greater than Satya. Śāntaṃ paramaṃ tapaḥ: the one who has compassion for all beings, who builds up within himself the principle of Satya that moves in every living being, and who has entered the path of Satya, he alone is the student.
Kāruṇyaṃ paramaṃ tapaḥ. Compassion, that principle of Īśvara, is this very thing: to recognise the Satya that shines resplendent in all beings as the form of consciousness, and to show compassion to every living being! This is the very authority of the Śruti.
If we inquire and look with a subtle eye, we can recognise many things in the animals, a class far below man. Animals like the elephant, the cow and the deer neither harm other animals nor devour them; they eat only pure grass and grain, and go on leading sāttvic lives. That is why, though they are animals born into a kind lower than man, the elephant, the cow, the deer and the like have long been worshipped by men.
In the same animal kind, cruel beasts like the tiger, the leopard and the wolf live by harming and devouring other animals, and so men keep far away from them,
All in all: Jantūnāṃ narajanma durlabhaṃ. Man is more exalted than these creatures, and holier. That cruelty should dwell in a humanity that is divine, fresh and noble is a matter of great wonder. Man, who grew through kindness, Prema, Dharma and Ahiṃsā, is losing the sāttvic, holy and divine feelings within him, because evil qualities such as mercilessness, cruelty, sheer hardness and ingratitude have entered him.
When a tiger, a leopard or a wolf enters a cow pen, what state are those cows left in?