In plain words
The body too is just like that. When the divine power of consciousness in it, the power of the Ātma, stops and no longer makes all its karmas work, it too becomes a lump of flesh. It becomes a leather bag. To give value to such a valueless body, to set all the karaṇas in it on the right path, and to make them fruitful as proper karaṇas on the path of life: this is man's chief duty.
But for man this worldly feeling does not change so easily.
Make a bed of powdered green camphor, pour on fragrant musk as manure, raise it with fine rose-water poured on it: will the onion give up its smell?
Where will its smell go? The green camphor itself is the soil. The fragrant musk itself is the manure, the rose-water itself the water. Though this onion is raised with all these things, the onion's smell never goes. These worldly feelings that have followed us from many births: whatever sādhanas we do, whatever kinds of satsaṅga we join, their old smell does not change so easily at all. So first of all man must understand well the matter of the body. What is this body? Is it made of faeces, urine, foul smell, flesh and blood? Yes, it is made of faeces, urine, foul smell, flesh and blood. But right within it shines the Ātma principle, the ruby. Rubies are not fruits that grow on trees. Rubies are things born in the earth itself. Though they are of clay, they take on the form of pure consciousness. Though your body is of clay, the Ātma takes the form of pure consciousness. To understand well this principle of pure consciousness is itself the chief secret for man. Otherwise, Jantūnāṃ narajanma durlabham: what would the rarity of this human birth be? Only when we recognise this precious thing do we become people who have rightly recognised our value. Man forgets the precious principle within him. He is selling his ruby of a heart for charcoal.