In plain words
What man truly has to experience is the very Ānanda of Brahman, which is undecaying Ānanda, non-dual Ānanda, Ānanda beyond all. The more we enjoy this fleeting physical Ānanda, the more desires grow; they never shrink. Growing and growing, these desires forge a bond with him, and for man it turns into nothing but a quagmire. For such physical pleasures man sets about sacrifices of many kinds. Man is the Ātma that lies beyond Manas. When he recognises this truth, he does not trust in the least the body, which lies on this side of Manas. What lies on this side of Manas is the body. What lies beyond Manas is the Ātma. The principle of the Ātma is eternal, immortal.
The Eternal One, who has neither death nor birth, without beginning, middle or end, the One who has no beginning, himself not dying, not born, not slain, abides in all as the very form of the Ātma.
The principle of the Ātma alone lets us enjoy such eternal, true immortality. Now the body.
A hovel of filth, a servant’s basket rotting with diseases; a thing that, once born, is stirred to and fro; a tuber; a thornbush that cannot cross the sea of birth; a quiver of arrows; get up and look: however we may think to praise it, this body now …
Trusting this body, which is impermanent, transient and unreal, like a bubble on water, we forget the principle of the Ātma, which is eternal, true and pure. For this very reason we go far away from the Ānanda we should enjoy, the Ānanda of the Ātma. Like the sun hidden by clouds, like fire covered by ash, like an eye’s sight covered by a film, like water covered by moss: how can this citta, covered by attachment and aversion, come by the Ānanda of the Ātma? Only after the clouds move can we see the sun. The moment the ash is blown away, we can see the fire. Only when we put attachment and aversion far away can we experience this Ānanda of the Ātma. That is why the chief duty is to recognise the divinity that is in humanness and to live by it.
Man is not merely one who wears this body made of the five elements. The Ānanda of the Ātma is a treasure trove. In the world people guard treasure troves, keeping them safe in many ways. They set every kind of guard over it. In the same way, this principle called Ahaṅkāra keeps guard over the treasure trove called Ānanda, which man’s life is meant for. On the day we root out this serpent called Ahaṅkāra, on that very day this Ānanda becomes ours. As long as there is Ahaṅkāra, we stay very far from the Ānanda of the Ātma.