In plain words
Bhārata, filled with noble feelings: to come to know the essence of its divine culture its people have failed to strive; what misfortune is there greater than this?
Embodiments of the divine Ātma!
The people of Bhārata have been able to gain independence, but they are unable to achieve unity. Independence without unity is like a wire without current. The Dharma of the people of Bhārata is the sacred Sanātana Dharma. It is lofty, it is gracious, it is endowed with good character. It is the favourite haunt of the Avatāras. It is the birthplace of ṛṣis, munis, yogīs, heroes, the steadfast, the valiant and chaste mothers. The sun, covered by clouds, may not be seen for some time. But you cannot say that there is no sun. In the same way, the culture of Bhārata has been hidden a little only because the clouds of some traditions and some modern ways have got in the way; but it will never perish. In every yuga such great persons keep incarnating. There is not a single yuga in which such great persons have not incarnated in Bhārata.
Foreigners are looking at Bhārata with a thousand eyes. Not merely on the doctrine of the people of Bhārata but on its spiritual principle, foreigners have built up many kinds of hope, and they keep coming to take refuge in it. But the people of Bhārata themselves are trying to cast off this culture, their own inheritance. This is a strange perversity. Truly, no one is able to describe the culture of Bhārata as being like this or like that. So today the people of Bhārata, longing for worldly pleasures and riches, keep criticising our divine, fresh and noble culture. These fleeting physical riches are indeed needed. But only when we develop spiritual wealth along with physical wealth shall we once more become people who give some ideal to the peoples of other lands. Unfortunately, today even the government has forgotten the culture of Bhārata and follows ways contrary to it. Their speeches and orders may be weighty. But their whole vision is growing on the civilisation of the West alone.