In plain words
On earth, what death is there beyond ill fame? At all times, what wealth is there beyond good fame? What ornament is there beyond remembrance?
‘Jantūnāṃ narajanma durlabham.’ Human birth is sacred. Having gained such a sacred birth, we must not take even a single step towards behaving like a beast instead of behaving as a man. Man must become the very embodiment of the ideal. Such Jñāna must be blended with Buddhi. We must not keep before us as our aim only selfishness and self-interest. Selfishness and self-interest are the marks of a beast. Then what is the inner meaning when man says, ‘I am holier than the animals’? We can say that he too is nothing but a two-legged beast. So we must purify the Buddhi with Jñāna.
The oneness of learning and tapas is niyama
They called life ‘vidyā tapobhyām’. ‘Vidyā’ does not mean merely acquaintance with books, or the studies done in colleges and schools. In it there are two kinds of learning: worldly learning and Brahmavidyā. Worldly learning is not something we need go to school alone to learn. We can learn it even in the bazaar. We are learning it in the market. Wherever we move about, there we are trying to take note of one thing or another. All the kinds of learning that develop Dharma, artha and kāma are worldly learning! All these are learning for a livelihood. But the highest of all kinds of learning is the learning that teaches the supreme goal of life. ‘Ādhyātma vidyā vidyānām’, said the Bhagavad Gītā. That is, recognising the principle of the Ātma. Man is one endowed with the Ātma, Manas, the body and the senses; he is not merely a collection of materials.