In plain words
Because time, action, cause and duty have changed, the word “dama” has been turning into “mada”
If humility is to come, control of the senses is essential. Learning should be pursued for the sake of control of the senses. That is why, in ancient times, honour was given only to learning gained together with control of the senses. The name for control of the senses is “damamu”. But because time, action, cause and duty have changed, in today's students the word “dama” has been turned round and has become “mada”, pride. The reason is that the humility and obedience that should be in students have come to nothing. They have come to believe that indulging the senses is the very life of student days. No, no: control of the senses is the chief rule for students. In ancient times, those whose learning was pursued with control of the senses were given the Sanskrit word “sākṣara” as their title. The inner meaning of the Sanskrit word “sākṣara” is a person who, with humility and obedience, has control of the senses and has recognised his own divinity. When dama became mada, the word sākṣara, read backwards, turned into “rākṣasa”. So the learned man who had gained his learning with dama was named “sākṣara”, and the learned man who studied without dama, out of pride, possessiveness and Ahaṅkāra, was named “rākṣasa”. It is not enough merely to be a scholar. In those days they taught that even if one studied the limbs and the lesser limbs of learning and won the name of a great Sanskrit scholar, if there was no dama, no humility and no obedience, all such learning was the learning of a rākṣasa.
Learning is for Vijñāna!
In the Vedic age, though there were beliefs of many kinds, people lived their daily lives with humanness, with faith in the divine, and longing for purity. But as the technical and scientific branches of knowledge advanced, men went on inventing machines that can burn the whole world to ashes in a moment. Even the scientist who discovered so mighty a power cannot attain Śānti.