In plain words
Where there is little virtue, though great learning be there, what fruit is it, what worth has that learning? Why ten acres of land that yields no crop? Even a little good land is enough.
Students!
Students today show earnestness and devotion only in physical, material learning; they make no effort towards what concerns the mind, towards what concerns the inner feeling, towards the readiness of the Ātma.
As, when clouds gather in the sky and move about, lightning shines out close beside them, so behind learning Jñāna must shine forth.
In today's education, on one side through desires bound up with the material world, through narrow regional pride, through the ties of caste and creed, they lose their very humanness, simply forget the flowering of learning, and gain no more than an acquaintance with books, do the students. They undergo today's education for the sake of wealth. But they do not study for the sake of character. Education is not bad. Wealth too is not bad. The root cause of it is man's own character. When man fills his heart with good resolves, this wealth and learning are put to good use. When he fills his heart with bad qualities, bad thoughts and bad feelings, both this learning and this wealth are put to bad use.
The chief cause of good use and bad use is man's mind, not learning and wealth. There is a fine comparison for this. When you pour clear water into a red bottle, the water turns red. When you pour that same pure water into a blue bottle, the very same water turns blue.