In plain words
Only after she is born do you say, “This is my child.” Before she was born, who was that child? Before the marriage, who was the wife? Who was the husband? All these are ties of kinship like clouds that drift away. But you are deluded into thinking these are what matter.
The body is not you; it is yours
There are many things you cannot see; there are many you do see. You think that what you have seen is true. But what you have seen is not true. What is inside you is what appears outside as a reflection. Nothing that is seen is ‘I’. ‘I am I!’ No one can create it, no one can push it aside. That ‘I’ alone is the principle that is eternal and true. It is “nirguṇaṃ, nirañjanaṃ, sanātanaṃ, niketanaṃ, nitya, śuddha, buddha, mukta, nirmalasvarūpiṇaṃ.” ‘I’ alone is divinity. On this very ground the Veda said, “Īśvaras sarva bhūtānāṃ.” In all beings there is divinity. All are the form of the Paramātma. But we call each one by a different name. This is only for identification in the world. “Hey, boy! Come here!”: if you call out so, which boy will come? But if you call, “Rāma! Come here!”, the one who has that name comes at once. We have given these names in order to point out the visible things of the world. These names were not born; they are only names given to the body that was born. The body that was born is not you. But because you have nursed the delusion that the body is ‘I’, it has turned into you. You say, ‘my body’. When you think ‘mine’, the ‘I’ must be something apart, must it not! When one says, this handkerchief is ‘mine’, this tumbler is ‘mine’, this mike is ‘mine’, all these are apart from me, are they not! Then who is ‘I’? When you sleep, you yourself do not know where your body is; you yourself forget your body. In the state of samādhi too you do not know your body. If you were the body, how could you forget the body? So the body is not you, Not you. The body is yours. If you recognise well these two principles in the world, ‘I’ and ‘mine’, you will understand the whole of creation. ‘Mine’ is the mark of pravṛtti. It has to do with the things of nature and with outward actions.