In plain words
In the Yajurveda there were 96 branches. But only 2 branches remain now. The Sāmaveda had a thousand branches. It too now survives in 3 branches. When so much endless Jñāna lies in the few branches that remain today, how gifted the people of Bhārata would have been had all the lost branches survived! Only because they have gone on neglecting the Vedas have the wisdom and learning of the people of Bhārata declined as well. Narrow ideas have grown. Broad ideas have declined. Today those who dislike the Vedas and those who loathe them are multiplying on every side. Even among the brāhmaṇas, who are in fact the foremost, this kind of Bhakti and śraddhā has been dwindling.
Who are the brāhmaṇas? Brahma means the form of the mantra. Because they went on remembering without ceasing the meanings that are the form of the mantra, they got the name brāhmaṇas. Today those very brāhmaṇas have been forgetting this divinity that is the form of the mantra. Because modern learning has grown, because desires have swelled, because the craving for wealth has grown, because noble feelings have declined and narrow feelings increased, they themselves have been losing their own divinity. That is why welfare too has been declining. In the world they have been losing peace and security.
What are the Vedas? One meaning of Veda is ‘to know’. Another meaning is intelligence. The third meaning is Viveka. All who truly want intelligence for themselves and wish to grow into people of Viveka must study the Vedas. Today the power of the intellect is growing, but people are building it up as an artificial power of the intellect. How to gain positions. By what path to make money grow. By what path to enjoy comforts and riches. By what path to gain peace and security. There are only such desires; but the lofty ideals of becoming people of good qualities and people rich in good conduct, of entering the divine path and of attaining the awareness of Brahman, have from that time been dwindling away. So they have been using all their intelligence on petty paths, on paths of selfishness and self-interest. Today they have been forgetting what is called humanness. The human form alone has remained; humanness has dropped out of sight. What use to the world is a man without humanness? The whole of the Veda, too: “There is no use in a man who is a man in shape alone; we need men who practise and men who spread it,