In plain words
Food in a vessel that we neither eat nor give to others but keep put away goes stale. In the same way, what becomes of the life of those who do not set right by themselves the faults and failings within them, and do not listen when the experienced tell them? Like stale dal that stinks, a life turned foul becomes meaningless. “Our boy is very good. But he has just two faults. They are: he does not know, and when others tell him, he does not listen,” a certain father once said, so the story goes. Today it is not one boy; all the children are at the same level. It has become natural for every father to say this. Is this the value of education? The children are good. That the fault lies in the system of education is known to all. But no one is able to reform it. That is the great weakness! They can say ten million things and do not do one. They keep announcing in the papers, “From primary, that is, from the elementary school up to the university, the system of education must change, must change”; but what must change? How must it change? What is its fault? No one is seen who says this, or who sets it right. They cannot see the truth that spiritual, dhārmic and moral value is man's crown. While they are ordinary people they write many essays on education. On platforms they shower parrot talk. When those same people adorn seats of power, they lay down laws flatly contrary to what they said.