In plain words
What you bow to is not the body made of the five elements. What is this body like?
A hovel of filth, a servant's basket wasting with diseases, a tuber set moving once it is born, a thornbush that cannot cross the sea of birth, a quiver of arrows: rise and see! When you think of the peril we are in, this body as lasting, do not trust it, O mind! Take refuge at the feet of Hari!
If we rely on such a body, what can we achieve? Do not make this body your support and heap up sin. The body is made of clay. The divinity in the body is pure consciousness. Make this divinity your support and earn respect. Nourish the body so that you can serve others. Believe that we took on the body for the sake of service alone. We did not take on the body to keep the body comfortable. What is this pleasure enjoyed through the body? It is of no use at all. However many pleasures we enjoy, in a single moment we have to leave them all and go. So many troubles, for a life that can end in a moment? We must respect every living being. That alone is the true service of God. What is the use of setting out to do service once a year? Is this all that life is? No, no. We must dedicate our body to service alone. Then every minute is new for us! Every day is a festival!
Abraham Lincoln was born into a very poor family. As a boy he went to school along with the children of the rich. Those children came to school wearing costly clothes and ornaments. But Lincoln would have his mother stitch up his torn old clothes, and go to school wearing them. One day his schoolmates saw Lincoln's clothes and jeered at him. Lincoln went to his mother in tears: “Mother! From now on I will not go to school. All my classmates look at me and make fun of me.