What is this body? Is it real or is it an illusion like our own body we see in the dream? Sri Adi Sankaracharya in the Vivekachoodamani says that for the one who has realised the true self, this body is just seen as a reflector of consciousness. It is visible due to the strength of past actions good and bad.
The wise man does not give too much importance to the body which has as much a reality and commands as much respect as a shadow. Our shadow can be stamped on, we don’t get upset. A car may run over it, we don’t get hurt. It may fall on a gutter. We don’t get dirty and we also don’t become clean when the shadow falls on a sparkling water source. Negation here does not mean to despise the body or to feel disgusted about the body. It simply means that not much attention is paid to it. It follows wherever we go like a shadow.
When this knowledge of the Self, pure and unsullied, happens and remains with the individual eternally, experiencing bliss along with it, it is best to throw far away the idea of the body which is inert and constituted of all waste material. Never again try to remember the thoughts, feelings, emotions and perceptions arising in the body, mind and intellect as much as it is not a very pleasant exercise to examine one’s own vomit to know the contents! The example seems to be extreme, but this much has to be said to
remove the craving, attention and attraction for the perishable form.
The idea of “I am the body,” needs to be burnt from its root in the fire of Self knowledge. Though the words seem harsh, it is not a painful exercise indeed. It is as smooth and beautiful as saying the sunlight glows in the morning to burn out the darkness of night. Meditate always on the Self, the Brahman, which is free of any change. The one who is firmly identified with the source remains as the eternal, pure, knowledge and bliss of the Self.
For the one whose thoughts have merged into the Brahman—the blissful self. Just as a garland rests on a cow’s neck of which it is unaware, the body just exists for the one who is established in the Self. The body is made up of threads of past actions and the wise one is not concerned whether it stays or drops.Having realised the Self which is one cosmic flow of existence of the nature of joy and one’s own reality, why is he ever going to desire something, for whatever cause will he sustain and pamper the body?