In plain words
Our sin is not atoned for by mantras. It is only through karmas that we can carry out this atonement, in whatever measure. So you must gain the strength and capacity fit to carry out the karmas of duty. In daily life we must experience true Ānanda. The joy we experience today is only worldly joy. Petty joys. Fleeting joys. Transient joys. Joys that are Asatya. Through these joys our heart can never become pure at all. That is why:
What use is worship of Śiva without purity of citta? Without purity of the self, what is that observance for? What use is cooking without a clean vessel?
When your heart is not pure, what is the use of however many karmas you do? In fact, the very doing of karmas is for purity of citta. To make citta still more impure through our karmas is still greater Ajñāna.
Yet today you may recite many kinds of Vedānta and teach them. But practising it is very hard. We must keep that hard practice as our chief aim. There is happiness for us in hardship itself; in happiness there is no happiness. So, even if in daily life we know no Vedas, śāstras, itihāsas or purāṇas, as far as we know we must develop compassion for living beings and repentance in our heart. The foolishness that, even with the power to give, cannot give in charity: whatever mantras it may chant, there is no use. As long as we have the means, we must give in charity. Wealth too has four enemies. The very first, the eldest son, is Dharma. We must put this wealth to good use for this very Dharma. Next, the second is the king, that is, the government. On some pretext, by staging some raid, by calling it some tax or other, they try to wrest it away. After they have wrested it, some thieves or other break in and carry off what remains. If anything more is left, fire breaks in and burns it to ashes. So, while life lasts, we must give fitting gifts in charity and make our life worthwhile. We must do it knowingly; after death, what can be done?