Jnani Is Not The Body

Sri Annamalai Swami

Q: How does the jnani relate to his body? How does it feel to him?

AS: The jnani is not really aware of the body. Or if he is, he feels it like akasha, space itself. After one of the operations to remove the tumour on Bhagavan's arm had been completed, I was worried enough to send a girl who worked for me to the ashram to ask how Bhagavan was. I could not go myself because Bhagavan had asked me not to visit him.

When this girl told Bhagavan why she had come, he started laughing very loudly. I interpreted this to mean that nothing had really happened. His laughter was a message to me that Bhagavan was not his body and that I should therefore not be upset or worried by anything that happened to it.

Years before, I was walking on the hill with Bhagavan when he remarked, 'I don't feel the weight of the body at all. I feel as if I am walking weightlessly through the sky.' I sometimes have the same feeling when I am walking around.