In plain words
Today, when we take great titles, gain high learning, then set out ten or twelve degrees in big letters and go for some job, people think, ‘What a great man he is!’ Letters are not the chief thing in this greatness. For greatness, our conduct alone counts.
There was a man of the middle class. In his home troubles grew and grew. As time, karma and his duties failed to go his way, his circumstances declined day by day. At that time a Vaiśya had made himself a big merchant, keeping good rice, dal and such in a shop. Thinking, ‘If I go to him I can at least support my family,’ he wrote him a long letter. Suppose his name was Saccidānandam. His name was Saccidānandam, but, poor man, Ānanda was not to be found anywhere he looked. On it he wrote the address. Śrī Śrī Śrī Saccidānandam. He wrote the degrees F.F.S, F.T.D. The merchant saw it. ‘What! A man with so many degrees says he will do some work in my shop!’ So thinking, the poor fellow sent for him. ‘Sir, you have taken such big degrees; what work can you do in my shop? What all have you passed?’ he asked. ‘F.F.S means Father of five sons. F.T.D means Father of ten daughters,’ he said. That was his qualification. We put on everything we do not have. So what matters is not taking the letters beside a name for degrees. We must prove it in our conduct. Letters have no value at all.
You must merge your kṣara in the akṣara. Your kṣara is the kṣetra. The akṣara is the kṣetrajña. Akṣara means the joining of the jīva with Brahman in oneness: that is its meaning. That is, for the unbroken, infinite, immortal principle, the letter a is the very form of the Ātma. Kṣara means what perishes, what wastes away, what falls prey to sorrow. So the perishable kṣara and the eternal letter a: the joining of the two is akṣara. That is, only when the jīva is joined with God does he become the very form of akṣara. The jīva is kṣara. God is the Ātma, which is the letter a. That is why Tulasīdās too said it. Reflecting on the principle of the letters a, ra and ma, he said, ‘Kuśānubhānuhimakarate.’ Kuśa, bhānu, himakarate. Kuśa means fire, bhānu means the sun, hima means the moon. So he said, ‘Your Name is the Name that holds fire, sun and moon, O Rāmacandra.’ Rāma: rā, a, ma. Rā means fire; it burns sins to ashes. A means the sun. The sun is he who wipes out darkness. Ma means the moon. He cools the burning heat and brings Ānanda. So: ‘O Rāmacandra, who wipes out sin, drives away ignorance and cools my burning!’