In plain words
In birth and death all are just the same. Whether a millionaire or one too poor for a meal, the principle of the Ātma in everyone is one alone. Bairāgi Śāstri said this. In many vessels the reflection of the moon is seen. But it is only a reflection. Where does this reflection go and join? It joins the original itself. In just the same way, all these bodies are like certain vessels. The sizes of these vessels may be different. But in all of them the one that is reflected is the Ātma alone. We must foster that one principle of the Ātma. Without fostering it, out of your Ahaṅkāra, your positions, your learning, your powers: are these the things you should be thinking about? All these, they said, are a leather puppet that topples at a sneeze … with nine holes. You are taking the nature of a leather puppet as your support. These are like passing clouds. It is like melting ice. Taking such a life of the jīva to be true, you forget the eternal, true and pure principle of the Ātma. None of these will ever stay with you, as your companion, in your home. What never forgets, never leaves, never wanes, at any time, ever, is one alone: it is the principle of the Ātma. Taking that eternal truth as our support, and holding as unreal the dealings of the world, which are Asatya and transient, we must carry on the journey of life. This world is not permanent. Before we were born, this world was not there for us. After death this world is not there. This world is just what has come and joined in between birth and death. Not only this. This world seen by day is not seen at night. This world in a dream is not seen by day. So in both of these we come upon a truth that is unreal. For the sake of such a world, which comes and goes, we build up delusions of many kinds and forget the principle of the Ātma, our true form. So we must make the right effort to experience the vision of our own true form. In this world we do not gain lasting Ānanda. Its very name is anityam asukhaṃ lokam. To seek an eternal, true Ānanda in such a transient and Asatya world is great Ajñāna.
In our studies, in our cleverness, in our practices, in our observances, in our thoughts, in our experience, the principle of the Ātma alone is there. Only when we take refuge in that alone, with Ānanda, do we become ones who have mastered everything. Only then do we become ones who have mastered even our senses. Prahlāda was a boy of six. Because divinity showed itself, rose up and shone in him, he became a son who taught good sense even to his father.