In plain words
So this body is inert. 'But it does go on growing! It does go on shrinking!' some may doubt. Can Caitanya be found in its growing and shrinking? Is it possible to call this Caitanya? Every day we sweep the whole house, take up this much rubbish and throw it into a pit. When we have thrown it in like this for a month, the rubbish heap grows. Is Caitanya the cause of this heap's growth? As we kept on throwing rubbish, the heap kept on growing. In the very same way, the big heap called the body, as we keep throwing into it every day iḍli and sāmbār, mashed dāl and all the rest, this heap called the body grows. All this is rubbish. All the food we eat is the same as rubbish. Keep from throwing this rubbish in for ten days, and it becomes a skeleton. It wastes away. So you cannot say this is Caitanya. The body is inert.
When we look at it, enquiring in this way: at night we lay down to sleep. This body fell onto a mattress like a heap. Or it fell like a lump of flesh. We think that the eyes, ears, mouth, nose, legs and hands are all there. But at night a dream came. We talk about this and that; we quarrel with someone or other. We wander about here and there. We do so many jobs; we see all sorts of people. We hear this and that. Who is it that hears there, tell me? Whose are the feet that moved about there? Whose are the hands that did the work there? Whose is the mouth that spoke there! Whose are the eyes that saw there? Who are you? It is all Māyā. You saw everything. You did everything. You heard everything. You said everything. But how long did it last? By the time you woke up, it was all gone. All that was seen in the dream is Māyā in the world. While you are in the dream, the waking state is void. In the waking state there is no dream. So in the dream, it is Māyā. If we enquire into suṣupti, it is only a reflection. It is of the nature of the cause. That cause is the Reflection of what? The Reflection of the Great Cause. So when we enquire into these three stations, nothing is permanent. The body of the waking state is not there in dream; the Māyā seen in dream does not appear in suṣupti. So to recognise the truth that all these are only transient and impermanent, that, they said, is Vairāgya. Here it does not mean giving everything up. Taking this body as your support, carry out the duty you have to do. It is to carry out duty of this kind that He has granted us the body. But this body: in what way? We must put it to work in tasks that serve others. We must not put it to use for its own selfish ends and its own gain.