In plain words
We must come from the human to the divine. But all of today's education is turning people from the human to the animal. So certain kinds of saṃskāra are most urgent for this. For want of those saṃskāras alone, however much learning there may be in human beings, they turn out to be nothing but fools. But when the saṃskāra has been sacred from the beginning, then whatever institution they join, whatever society they join, no change of any kind comes to them. Whatever friends he keeps, he does not change. He does not change his own outlook. He does not take up another's outlook. This is the right saṃskāra. Precisely for want of such saṃskāra, man changes, one way here and another way there, and becomes simply lower than a beast. We may read books, learn them by heart and get marks in examinations. With the marks we may take degrees. We should not be proud that, just by taking these degrees, we have become learned. We are only ignorant, not wise. We have no right ever to bring these into society. We simply carry off the degree and fill our bellies. That is not our education. Real education: we must make the Ānanda of the Ātma within us grow. All our joy is not in objects, nor in the world, nor in the universe, nor in society. What we call the aim of a human life is not in society either. All saṃskāras are in ourselves alone. The Ānanda that man longs for is in himself alone. Forgetting the Ānanda that is in us, we scramble for joy outside. Joy outside is not to be seen anywhere. Man projects outside the very Ānanda that is in him, and tries to enjoy that very thing again as joy. We eat. We think there is joy in this. How far does this give joy? It gives joy until the stomach is full. Once the stomach is full, we push it far away in disgust. All these are passing joys. Such joy is not joy. The Ānanda that is eternal Satya is the Ānanda of the Ātma. Once you have gained this, there is nothing wrong in going after this worldly joy. Not to experience that, and to scramble only for joy that is transient and impermanent: this is the mark of Ajñāna.
How many degrees we get! What fruit is there in taking these degrees? One may earn lakhs and crores. What fruit comes to us from this? “I shall live in comfort,” a man says. How long will he live? But will this life give lasting happiness? As this money keeps growing, fear keeps chasing on the other side.