In plain words
The unchanging is the Ātma-tattva. So, to recognise such Ātma-tattva, we must drive out these monkey ways in our humanness. What is the root cause of these monkey ways? It means he was born a monkey in a former birth. Its antics still remain in him. Why? A boil rose on the hand; though the boil heals, its scar stays there. In the same way, though your birth has changed, its ways are still in you. So: In my last birth I was a monkey. Inquiring, "From now on at least I must not be a monkey," you must develop the feeling, "I am a man, a man." That is what we must first of all realise. I am man not animal. I am man half truth. I am an animal half truth. These two half truths join and become the full truth. Only then will animal thoughts not come to you. I am man not an animal. You call yourself Man, but you behave as an animal. To control this animal quality in us: I am not an animal. In these days the animal is better. The animal has a season, a reason. Man has no season, no reason. worse than an animal. So we must not think of such a one as human. So we must go on being human.
Mānava. Ma means Ajñāna. Na means without. Va means acting; one who acts without Ajñāna is the mānava. Mā means not. Nava means new. I am not new. I am the old one, who has been coming through many births. Mānava. Nava, new; ma. Not. I am not new. Here is another. Mānava. This mānavatva means that which is joined with navatva. Nava means the Ātma. This Ātma itself is the seat of the five elements. Sound, touch, form, taste, smell and the rest have all arisen from the Ātma alone. From the Ātma, ākāśa; from ākāśa, air; from air, fire; from fire, water; from water, earth. From earth, man. Between man, who comes last, and the Ātma, who comes first, there is a close bond of kinship. We went on stitching and stitching this garland. At the very end we stopped. Only when we join this last and this first together is the garland made. So beginning and end must both come together. Beginning: Ātma; end: mānava. When this humanness joins the Ātma-tattva, the garlend called life is made. So we must become this garlend. In this garlend there are two kinds. The flowers appear as many. But the thread is one. The one thread has gone into all the flowers. In these flowers there are changes. yesterday, a bud. Today it opened. Tomorrow it will wither. In these flowers there is this change. But yesterday, the thread itself. Today, the thread itself. Tomorrow, the thread itself. No change comes to the thread. Among the many living beings, the one thread has come forth as the Brahma-sūtra.