In plain words
Faith in the Ātma is most necessary to every student
This envy does not stop there. It makes one carry tales against others. These bad habits are naturally more common among the young. This is a mark of ignorance. To drive them out, at daybreak and on lying down one must examine the faults within oneself and try to rid oneself of them. One must pray to God. If we win the grace of God alone in full, such faults will not come near us. Friendship with good people, a share in good works and keeping to good words are marks of discernment in students. That is why I say from time to time: friendship with those of bad hearing, bad words, bad smell and bad deeds will be the ruin of one's future. The faults of the five senses take the five vital breaths and kill the five sheaths. For the moment these faults of the senses give joy and pleasure. As the saying goes, “Your doom lies ahead”: they bring suffering in the future. Faith in the Ātma is most necessary to students. The want of that faith is the beginning of life's downfall. The root cause of the world's having fallen so far today is the loss of faith in the Ātma. For one with faith in the Ātma all is auspicious. All is good. Wherever he goes there is honour; whatever he touches turns to gold. One with no faith in the Ātma, one who does not trust himself, whom can he trust? Even if he trusts, it is an artificial trust, not a natural one. In the end he has no trust even in mother, father, wife or children. But such people act as if they trusted. They stoop to betraying mother and father. So faith in the Ātma is most necessary to every student. So students must keep reading the lives of holy people concerned with morality and honesty, and the Purāṇas and Itihāsas. They must have faith in the Dharma Śāstras. They must not neglect them. The Purāṇas are authorities for the progress of man.