In plain words
There is the sea. The Śrutis have also called it ‘Kūṭastha’. Waves rise from the water. Foam comes from the waves. There can be no foam without waves. There can be no waves without water. These three are closely bound to one another. Yet no one calls the foam the waves. No one calls the waves the sea. In just the same way, what is called the dehātma is like the foam. This body made of the five elements is like a bubble.
This body of the five elements, so frail, must fall at some time, somewhere; they set its measure at a hundred years, but do not trust that word in your heart; in childhood, or in the prime of youth, or else in old age, or in the frailty of the very old, in the village, in the forest, or in the midst of the waters, when it will be left, no one knows; death alone is certain for man; while one still has the body, to grow wise and know oneself is the principle of Dharma, if you look into it: the path of Satya, the word of Śrī Sāī.
Because the Ātma takes atomic form in this body, they called it the ‘dehātma’. Jīvātma means the principle that has taken the form of the effect. This universal consciousness moves all substances. But when it comes near the Ātma, it stays humble and subdued. Yet in consciousness too the Ātma takes on atomic form. Because the dharmibhūta-jñāna and the dharmabhūta-jñāna pervade it, they called it the ‘jīvātma’. Then there is the Paramātma. Note one small point here. There are three principles: ‘the body’, ‘the jīva’ and ‘the Paramātma’.
Jīva + Ātma = jīvātma Deha + Ātma = dehātma Parama + Ātma = Paramātma
Jīva, deha and parama appear as three separate things, but the Ātma is one and the same in all three.
The principle of the Ātma is not seen by those filled with the vāsanās of the world
Embodiments of Prema! You do not need to go that far. If we inquire even into small matters, Satya is easily understood. Many people come to Me. They say, ‘Swami! I want peace.’ There are three words here. ‘I’ means ego. Take it away. Want means desire. Take that away too. What is left is peace (Śānti). If you keep ego and desire beside you and say, ‘Peace, peace,’ how will you ever get it? So, if even in spiritual matters we think rightly, with the feeling of Advaita, we easily understand how simple the principle of the Ātma is, how delicate, how holy and how worthy of honour.