Meditate ‘I am the Self’. If you do this, the idea that you are the body will go. ‘I am the Self’ is still an idea, and as such, it belongs in maya, along with all other ideas. But you can begin to conquer maya by giving up utterly wrong ideas that bind you and cause you trouble. How to do this? Replace them with ideas that are a better reflection of the truth, and which are helpful in leading you to that truth. If you want to cut iron, you use another piece of iron.
In battle, if someone shoots an arrow at you, you shoot one back.
In maya, if the arrow of a bad idea comes speeding towards you, dodge it. Don’t
let it stick to you or you will end up in pain. Then, in retaliation, fire back
the arrow of ‘I am the Self’ at the place where the wrong idea came from.
Sadhana is a battlefield. You have to be vigilant. Don’t
take delivery of wrong beliefs and don’t identify with the incoming thoughts
that will give you pain and suffering. But if these things start to happen to
you, fight back by affirming, ‘I am the Self; I am the Self; I am the Self’.
These affirmations will lessen the power of the ‘I am the body’ arrows and
eventually they will armor-plate you so successfully, the ‘I am the body’
thoughts that come your way will no longer have the power to touch you, affect
you or make you suffer.
This fight all takes place within maya because in reality
you are peace and peace alone. But while you are suffering in maya you can use
these thoughts as a means of ultimately conquering it.
When I say give up your identification with the ‘I am the
body’ idea, I don’t mean that you are not the body. I mean that you should give
up the idea that you are only the body. You are all bodies, all things, all creation,
but paradoxically, this knowledge will not come to you unless you give up
identifying with particular objects, such as ‘I am the body’, and limiting
thoughts such as ‘I am so-and-so’. When you have given up all thoughts, all
identifications, the true knowledge suddenly dawns on you: I am the unmanifest Self
and I am also the whole of manifestation.’
So I tell people: ‘This physical body is not you; the mind
is not you. Go beyond them to see what is really behind them.’ This is done to
make people give up their incorrect, limiting ideas, so they can have a direct
experience of what is truly real. I am asking people to be aware of the rope of
reality instead of being confounded and led astray by the mental illusion of
the snake.
Annamalai Swami