In plain words
It is not in this worldly thing, however, that we must tie our knot. With just such small, sacred words, the Taittirīya Upaniṣad gave good counsel to students. There are still more important matters in it that students need. There is a programme after this. So let us discuss these matters later on.
Students! Forget that worldly learning alone is what matters. There is no learning greater than humanness. However much learning there may be without humanness, it is of no use.
Having learnt ever so much learning, what is the fruit? Whose power is it to escape the writing on one's brow? If evil thoughts come into one's head, the mind withers in the sun, the thoughts turn to stone.
Such learning is not learning. This worldly learning is certainly most needed. This research is needed; but the learning that is the ground, the learning that is the root, the learning that is the thread, is the learning to be studied in the chief feeling of the Ātma. That itself is the root. All this is the gross. Can the gross exist without the root? This tumbler stands right here. This is only the gross. The table is the root. This table stands right here. This table is the gross. But the earth is the root. One is the support, one is the supported. Leaving the support and holding on to the supported, we fall into troubles. We must understand the support. That itself is Ātmavidyā. Through this Ātmavidyā alone it becomes possible to recognise everything. When we know the One, we have known everything. That itself is unity in Diversity. The Upaniṣads alone teach this truth. In today's system of education there is no room at all to teach the Upaniṣads, the Brahmasūtras, the Vedas or the Purāṇas. All the full values that are in humanness are in them alone. Leaving aside those precious diamonds and gems, they scramble after coal. This coal is of no use to us at all. We must earn these diamonds. When will those diamonds come into our hands? When we destroy the mind in these worldly matters: die mind is di mond. We must lessen this mind in these physical things to some extent. What great, great men of learning there are in the world!