In plain words
Worship Govinda, worship Govinda, worship Govinda, O fool! When the appointed time draws near, ‘ḍukṛñ karaṇe’ will not save you, will not save you.
On that day it will not save you. This youth leaves you in a moment. It goes like Passing clouds. The body withers as a flower that opened at dawn withers by evening. Your wealth and riches flash once, as lightning flashes. At once it hands you darkness. But there is one Satya that never changes. That is the true Ānanda of the Ātma. Keep your aim on that, and learn as much worldly learning as you like.
All these are worldly learning. One is pravṛtti, the second is nivṛtti. This pravṛtti is always “birth again, death again”. What hands out these two is pravṛtti. But nivṛtti shows the path of “there is no rebirth”. Madman! Your life is simply like the husk on rice. As long as this husk is on, wherever you put it, birth again, death again: they keep springing up as plants. So take off this husk. It turns into husked rice. You can eat it, you can enjoy it gladly, you can earn it. But it has no birth. Your study is for recognising such a Satya, which has neither death nor birth. So if it is always dying and being born again, what is there left to learn? This life, if you think it over well, is like a daily newspaper. The newspaper you looked at today must become waste paper tomorrow. Is there any fool who reads the newspaper he has already read? Once we have read it, it turns into waste paper. No one is to read it a second day. If being born again and dying go on in this way, what is this? Better that waste paper: it is of use at least for a few paper packets. Our life is not of use even for that. A human life without virtue is lower than a beast, than a bird even, than a little insect. When a hunter strikes down a bird and carries it off in his hand, a meat-eater takes it, asking what its price is. When a fish is caught, and you in Calcutta know this well, everyone carries fish off in their hands. For this too they pay a price and buy. But does anyone put a price on a dead man? They put a price on the hide of a dead cow. But does anyone put a price on a man's skin? They put a price on a bird's feathers. Does anyone put a price on this hair? Where is the value? They pay a price and buy a tiger's claw. Who is buying your nail? They stitch sandals from the hide of an animal and wear them. Your skin is of no use even for sandals. To bring such a human birth down to such a low state! We must put our life into service that makes it worthwhile. We earn lakhs upon lakhs.