Prose-section 21
In plain words
This gross body, which comes from food, grows by eating food and dies without food, is the food sheath. Made of skin, blood, flesh, fat, bone, excrement and urine, it is thoroughly unclean. It was not there before and will not be there after; it appears only in between. It changes from moment to moment and keeps to no rule. It is seen, like a pot; it is inert, many, and something to be directed. How could such a body be the Self? The Self is its very opposite by nature: it is one. A hand or a foot may be lost and the person goes on living with his powers; in the same way, when the body made of such limbs perishes, the Self does not perish. It is eternal and pure, and it knows by itself, as a mere witness, the body’s six changes, its properties, its actions and its states, and it directs them. The body can never be the Self. The dull fool thinks this heap of skin, flesh, bone, excrement and urine is “I.” The man of rites with a little discrimination takes body and individual soul together as “I.” The great soul devoted to enquiry, whose discriminating knowledge is firm, knows himself at all times as the supreme Brahman, distinct from this body, his own very being. Taking the body as the Self is the seed of birth and every sorrow. You do not take your shadow, your reflection, the body you picture in a daydream or the body you have in a dream to be yourself. In the same way, do not take this gross body of skin, flesh and bone as yourself in the least. Remove that notion by effort. Place the sense of Self in Brahman, the Self of all, dense being-awareness-bliss, without distinctions; so let the mind dissolve, and attain supreme peace. After that there is no more becoming for you. Even a scholar who knows the meaning of Vedanta well has not even the word “liberation” for as long as, through delusion, he will not let go of the notion “I” in the unreal body and the rest.
Word for word
This gross body, arising from food, growing by eating food and perishing without food, is the food sheath. Composed of skin, blood, flesh, fat, bone, excrement and urine, it is very impure. Absent before and after, it appears only in between, changes moment by moment without a fixed condition, is seen like a pot, is insentient, manifold and subject to direction. How could it be the Self, which is by nature distinct from it, one, eternal and pure, does not perish with the body, and itself knows the body, its six changes, actions and states as their directing witness? Just as life and the respective powers continue when limbs such as hands and feet perish, the Self does not perish when the body composed of those limbs perishes. The body can never be the Self. The undiscerning person thinks the heap of skin, flesh, bones, excrement and urine is “I.” One with some discrimination and knowledge of ritual action takes body and individual soul together as “I.” The great soul devoted to enquiry and firm discriminative knowledge always knows himself as ultimate Brahman, distinct from the body and his own very nature. Since bodily self-identification is the seed of birth and other suffering, do not identify as Self with this gross body, just as you do not identify with a shadow, reflection, imagined body or dream body. Remove that identification through effort. By knowing the Self as Brahman, the Self of all, undivided being-awareness-bliss and free of distinctions, dissolve the mind and attain supreme peace. Thereafter there is no becoming for you. Even a scholar who knows Vedanta well has no claim to the word “liberation” so long as delusion prevents relinquishing the notion “I” in the unreal body and the like.