In plain words
Expounding the Vedas and Śāstras, one may have the learned recite them, and one may recite them oneself; yajñas, yāgas and tapas, by people entitled to them, one may have performed, and one may perform them oneself; to go to the holy places on this earth, others one may urge, and one may go oneself; to those who seek the siddhis of the eight-limbed yoga, instruction one may give, and one may practise it oneself. But their own Manas, Buddhi and Ahaṅkāra holding them still and turning them inward, with discipline, established in unwavering samādhi, they cannot stand firm. Listen at all times, you who are Bhāratīyas.
Embodiments of the divine Ātma!
The religion that has gone on unbroken in Bhārata from the time of the Vedas is Hinduism. From the beginning, many kinds of danger have kept pursuing this Hinduism; that it has faced them all with courage and stood through so many ages without a crack and without being shaken means that the wise may praise the excellence of Hinduism as highly as they will. That Hinduism has for centuries on end brought many kinds of traditions and saṃskāras into harmony and kept them safe is a great achievement of rare distinction.
Hinduism is made by God; it is dear to God; it is blended with God; the religion that has taught the harmony of all religions and spread it is Hinduism. Many people may go on giving many kinds of meaning to the word ‘Hindu’. They may make commentaries of ever so many kinds. They may set out its derivations. But the true word ‘Hindu’ means this: hiṃ, hiṃsā, and dū, that which puts it far away. The land of the Hindus is the very land that puts hiṃsā far away. Hinduism is precisely what the people of that land follow. This is its inner meaning. What does not accept hiṃsā in the least is the land of the Hindus: it is Hinduism. What longs for the well-being of all lands is Hinduism. What causes the divine words ‘All this is pervaded by the Lord’ to be taught is Hinduism. It has given divine teachings beyond place, time and person, and from that day to this, though many kinds of traditions have come about, though the ages have changed and the worlds have turned, it has kept teaching the people its own pure divinity. For the well-being of the world, for the welfare of the world, people have been performing rites of this kind, yajñas, yāgas and the like, for centuries on end. This does not belong to one caste, or one religion, or one tribe, or one varṇa, or to any individual. It belongs to the world itself.
‘May all the worlds be happy’: this alone is the aim of the yajña. That is why in ancient times the ṛṣis, belonging to no village, no tribe and no town, would choose in the forest a high and excellent spot that lay near all the villages, build a hall for the yajña there, and carry out rites such as yajñas and yāgas.