In plain words
however many studies you learn, what fruit is there? Who has the power to escape what is written on the forehead? If evil thoughts once lodge in his head, the wits dry up and turn to stone.
Our conduct is the root cause of our good and bad. There is no fault in study. There is no fault in saṃskāra. But the fault lies in the individual's conduct itself. When sacred water is poured into a spotless white bottle, it looks white. But when that same water is poured into a red bottle, the water looks red. Is this fault the water's or the bottle's! The fault is the bottle's alone. In the same way, the sacred system of education is very delicate, sacred, spotless and selfless. Once it is mixed with the impurities called selfishness and self-interest, it looks impure.
The Whole of Human Life Rests on Manas
First of all, man must purify his Manas. Only when that Manas becomes pure will the looks, the ways, the hearing, all be pure. The whole of human life rests on Manas. Not human life alone: the whole universe rests on Manas. ‘Mano mūlam idaṃ jagat’: the whole world rests on Manas itself. So when we make the Manas good, the man too becomes like it. If we call this fellow bad, he is bad because the Manas is bad. If we call this man good, he is good precisely because the Manas is good. The Manas is what lives within. The outer form is the man's. Man today looks at everything only with an eye to selfishness and self-interest. He loves the world for his own selfish ends, but does not love the world for the world's sake. He acts as though he loves a person, but does not love the person. He loves that person for his own sake.