In plain words
What does it make known? It makes known the science of whatever word stands before ‘Veda’. But Dharma and Mokṣa are both beyond the senses; they do not come within the grasp of the Buddhi. How, then, does the Veda make known the nature of Dharma and Mokṣa, which have taken a form beyond the senses? It makes known the yajñas, yāgas and other rites, which are the means to Dharma and Mokṣa. Even the Veda has no authority to make known directly what we call Dharma and Mokṣa. That is why the Veda itself declared, ‘Na karmaṇā na prajayā dhanena tyāgenaike amṛtatvamānasuḥ’: this Mokṣa called immortality is not gained by wealth, nor by riches, nor by any other kind of meritorious deed. Yet Dharma and Mokṣa can come into their own in the form of action: practised through good deeds, they gain their standing by that means. That is why it came to be called the Veda.
The world itself is upheld by Dharma
Because it teaches both kinds of karma, the Vedic and the worldly, the emperor Manu gave Dharma a new kind of name. For the place where karma is done so that daily life, lived as human beings, may follow the path of Satya, he coined the name ‘vidhāna’. But in the Kali age they have taken to calling the buildings of the Legislative Assembly, which lay down the people’s codes, laws and rules, ‘vidhāna saudhas’. ‘Vidhāna’ means the chief seat of law-giving. Unable to grasp the true nature of this Veda, people multiply its meanings, take up what is harmful, cast off what is true, and so set about making their own humanness meaningless. The word Dharma is very vast. It covers the whole world. The entire world is bound together by Dharma. The world itself stands upheld by Dharma. What, then, is the inner meaning of propagating this Dharma, which is present everywhere? It is only when something is present in some places and absent from others that it needs to be spread where it is absent. Why spread again what is present everywhere?