Direct knowledge of that total identity between the individual-Self and the Universal-Self, stemming forth from the Vedic statements such as “Thou art that”, etc., is the immediate means to liberation. Give up the intellectual misconception that the Self is the body, etc., and always meditate upon and think you to be the eternal Knowledge - Bliss – the Witness of the intellect – a sheer mass of Pure Knowledge. The body is not the Self, as like the pot, etc., the body also has form, etc., and again, the body is a modification of the great elements such as Akash, just like the pot. Just as the perceiver of a pot is ever distinctly different from the pot and can never be the pot – so too, you, the perceiver of your body, are distinct from your body and can never be the body – this you firmly ascertain in yourself. Source – Vakya Vritti of Adi Shankaracharya Translated by Swami Chinmayananda