In plain words
Students! This is a very sacred age. You must give no room at all to feelings of difference. Changes of this kind are themselves an illness. To look at, the body may seem sturdy. But the make-up of the mind may be very weak. For us, only in a healthy body is there a healthy mind. As our body is, so the feelings that keep coming into it are of that kind too. From a body that is sturdy and content, firm resolves keep springing up in us. From a weak body nothing but doubts keep springing up. So we can enquire for ourselves whether we are strong or weak. As your resolve is, so your strength will be. That is why: yadbhāvaṃ tadbhavati. The body is impermanent; it is a bubble of water. It does not last. It is death itself. But within it there is a gem, a divine Ātma principle. For its sake we must look after this body. An iron safe has no price. But inside the iron safe that has no price we have put very precious jewels. For the sake of those jewels we must look after the iron safe. If there are no jewels in it at all, there is no need to look after the iron safe. So this body is like an iron safe. In it the Ātma dwells secure. For its sake we must look after this body. We must eat in order to live, and not eat for the sake of food. Today people think as though they live for the sake of food. If we truly have self-confidence, food will come walking up to us. We need not go hunting for food. In the Bhāgavata too they said, 'One who searches for the Ātma is a gopī; one who searches for food is a sinner.' We came for the search for the Ātma, and we are carrying on the search for food. If we have the grace of the Ātma, there is no need to carry on the search for food. Will He who gave us birth not be able to feed us? This faith we must make strong. 'My dear, know yourself. See yourself. Recognise yourself,' so Vedānta has been teaching you. But men have put this truth out of mind. If someone hands you a mirror saying, 'Hey, lad, look at your own face', and you hold that mirror before someone else's face, how will your face be seen? You have not seen your own face.