In plain words
In the world we cannot enjoy any substance without refining it. There is cotton. This cotton comes with seeds in it. It has little value. But only when we separate the seed from the cotton, draw the cotton out into thread and make the thread into cloth, does the cloth become of use to us. The value of this cloth has become many times greater than the value the cotton had before. The value of form and name grows. So to refine a substance without value into a substance of value and put it to use: that is true culture. We have grown paddy. But we cannot eat the paddy we have grown just as it is. Only when we separate the husk on the paddy and cook it into rice does it come into the right state to be eaten. A bag of paddy may be a hundred rupees. But the same bag, refined into rice, is worth four hundred rupees. It is the refining done to bring it this value of four hundred rupees that has raised its value. So we must add value to every thing. Only when we give it this value is our use of it, too, good and right. This very value is what our culture calls the goal of life. This is what they called the life made up of the four puruṣārthas. These are Dharma, Artha, Kāma and Mokṣa. These are the chief principles in the culture of Bhārata.
Morality and honesty alone are the true values of the culture of Bhārata
What does Dharma mean? ‘Dhārayatīti dharmaḥ,’ they said. That is, Dharma is what upholds all things. This is not so easy for everyone to understand. Each substance has its own valuable quality. The Upaniṣads, the Vedas, and the Itihāsas and Purāṇas too keep teaching that this whole world rests on Dharma. It is hard to set out the svarūpa of Dharma. Whatever is the vital breath that is the measure of a thing, if that thing lacks that chief vital breath, it turns into some other thing.