In plain words
One may learn every branch of learning and win over the assembly; one may fight as a hero on the field of battle; one may be born a king of kings and rule a kingdom; one may give gifts of gold and of land; one may count the stars of the sky; one may name every kind of living thing; one may learn all the eight-limbed sciences; one may make a journey to the moon; but holding in the body, the senses and the rest, steadying the mind and turning it within, abiding as the Ātma, ever unmoving, men cannot stand firm in that discipline.
In the most holy land of Bhārata, forbearance alone is our beauty; of all the vows, the one that has won renown, the great practice of Satya is the hardest tapas; if you ask what feeling is sweetest in our country, what is more honoured than the feeling for a mother? That held honour higher than life itself, our country’s code they have burned to ash, and today, searching out foreign codes, they have handed us the sharp sword called strange freedom; ah, what shall I say of the rule of Bharata! Like the elephant that did not know its own strength, so have the people of Bhārata become today.