Q: Swami frequently says that we should not identify with the body.
If I reject the idea that this is my body, what other instruments can I use to realize the Self? Don’t I need to identify with the body in some way in order to use it to do sadhana?AS: You are wearing a shirt. Does this mean that you must take this shirt to be yourself? You wear a shirt to keep warm, but you don’t say,
’I am a shirt’. You can use the body as an instrument to realize the Self without thinking, ’I am the body’. Just regard the body as a helpful tool.
Conversations with Annamalai Swami
– LWB, p. 331
