In plain words
You are not the body, this heap of blood, flesh and bones; you are not the desires that never show themselves clearly, nor the futile Manas; you are not the delusion of attachment that stands as a bond in the way of Mukti; you are the eternal Paramātma, able to know your own power!
Embodiments of the Ātma of Prema!
The body, the senses, Manas, Buddhi: all these are man's upādhis. Only one who recognises the secret of these upādhis can understand the principle of the Ātma. The first is the body. Śarīra means that which wastes away. At the very beginning it is a lump of flesh. Then it takes on a tender form. In youth it shines with beauty. After that it wears away day by day, and in old age it undergoes many deformities. It has another name, ‘deha’. “Dahyatīti dehaḥ”: that is, what is burnt is the deha. What is it like?
A house of filth, a servant's basket wasting away with diseases, a tuber that has known only stirring since its birth, a thornbush that cannot cross the ocean of worldly life, a quiver of arrows: arise and look! Whenever we think on it, never trust this body to stand firm, O Manas; take refuge at the feet of Hari.
The body also has the name ‘citā’. Citā means fire. It burns those who have died. But cintā, worry, burns up the living themselves. The human body is inert. You may wonder, “If it is inert, how then does it grow?” If every day we sweep our house, carry off a little rubbish and throw it into a pit, in a while it grows into a mound, does it not! In the same way, because we give this body food three times every day, this ‘mound’ too grows. But within it there is the Caitanya called divinity, and that makes it do all its work.
The kṣetra and the kṣetrajña
“Śarīramādyaṃ khalu dharmasādhanaṃ”: this body has been granted for the practice of Dharma. In the Bhagavad Gītā Śrī Kṛṣṇa gave it the name kṣetra. What does kṣetra mean? Because Viśveśvara dwells in Kāśī, it was called the kṣetra of Kāśī. That is, what is the dwelling-place of God is called a kṣetra. This body too is a kṣetra. For within it is the kṣetrajña called the Ātma. “Kṣetrakṣetrajña cāpimāṃ viddhi,” said Kṛṣṇa. Since it is the temple where the kṣetrajña dwells, the kṣetra too is holy. That is why we first bow to the temple and then bow to the main image. Kṣetra has a second meaning too: a field. Whatever seeds we sow in the field, that very crop is what grows.
“I shall do this, I shall do that, I shall do ever so much more,” so saying, do not weave fancies and wear yourselves out. Whatever seeds you sowed while you were here, those very fruits will keep coming to you. If the seed is of one kind, that fruits of another kind should come to you: how can that ever be?”
So whatever karmas we perform with this body, we cannot escape experiencing results of just that kind. We must make the right saṅkalpa to perform good karmas and receive good results.