In plain words
Though he has no learning, he boasts that he is a great scholar. Though he has no strength, he thinks he is some King Kong. How long does all this strength last? All these strengths are fleeting, like passing clouds. Today you may be proud that you are in some post. How long does this post last? Once he has retired, no one looks at his face. So, as long as he has such a post, he may have plenty of attendants. The moment the post ends, no one says good bye to him. All these are fleeting and worthless posts. Given over to these worthless kinds of pride, man forgets his own divinity.
He is losing faith in the strength of his own Ātma. When a little bird perches on a branch and the branch sways this way and that, it is not in the least afraid. Why? It did not rely on the branch of that tree. It relied on its own wings. Even a bird relies on its own wings, but man does not rely on his own self-confidence. He relies on others. For his positions he goes through so much suffering. Greed itself is the root cause of falling into such sorry states. There is no end to man's desire. Suppose there is a bird inside the hollow of a tree. If the tree catches fire, the bird in the hollow of the tree flies off with a whirr. It does not grieve in the least. If a man's house catches fire, he comes out and shouts loudly, "My valuable things are gone! My clothes are gone! My jewels are gone!"; in this way man wails. Who brought all these? He weeps when his house burns, but who weeps when his life departs? Does he go on weeping for these jewels? No! He goes away leaving even the house he built. They do not keep him in the house he built. They send him out. His bank balance does not go with him. Not even a fistful of earth goes with him. How is it that we go away leaving all that? We go away leaving it because it is not ours. If it were ours, it should come with us, should it not? So we pine for what is not ours, for what does not come with us. What teaches that all these are transient, impermanent and Asatya is the Veda. This is: tyāgenaike amṛtatvamānasuḥ. You must reflect on how much well-being there is in tyāga. We eat once. If the food we have loaded in does not unload again somewhere else, the stomach bursts.