In plain words
Lifetimes have all gone by in japa and yajña, yet man's mind has not settled. Can japa and yajña fulfil a birth for the dull-witted who will not hold the mind still?
Embodiments of the divine Ātma!
In the Tretā Yuga, famed as the soil and the birthplace, the very byword, of rites such as yajñas and yāgas, of works such as charity, and of sādhanas such as japa and tapas, Emperor Janaka began a great yajña, to make humanness manifest and to spread divinity. He invited many munis, yogis, rāja-yogis and paṇḍits. Through them he carried out the yajña in the greatest splendour, in triumph. On the last day this Emperor Janaka held a great assembly. He prayed that any knower of Brahman among them should come forward. Some doubts arose among the many munis and maharṣis. But Yājñavalkya came forward with courage, without any doubt. Emperor Janaka, as he had arranged beforehand, had a thousand cows adorned in every way, and wished that this knower of Brahman should take them away. The moment he heard these words, Yājñavalkya roused his disciples and ordered them to take these cows away to his āśrama. Aśvala, master of the yajña, rose: “Yājñavalkya! Only after you have proved that you are a knower of Brahman have you the right to take these cows away; before you prove it so, you have no right to take these cows away.” With that he barred the way.
Taking this as his occasion, Yājñavalkya went on questioning the many paṇḍits and ṛṣis in many ways. No one could give the right answers to the questions of this Yājñavalkya. While the assembly stood thus in silence, in a pure mood, Aśvala rose and asked, “What is the way to overcome death?” To that Yājñavalkya answered, “Speech.” This speech itself is fire. Through speech, with the help of fire, in the form of fire, death can be overcome, he said. This very overcoming is Mukti, and this is ati-mukti, he answered as well. Aśvala asked him once more to answer this in the right way.