Nothing Exists Apart From You

Sri Annamalai Swami

Q: To remain as myself, to have this awareness 'I am the Self' is it enough that I merely hear the sound I-I, because I do hear it everywhere?

AS: If it is constant, it will be enough. If you don't forget your real Self, that will be enough. Your real Self is everything. Not an atom exists apart from the Self. You, the real You, the Self, are all inclusive. 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, the true knowledge suddenly dawns on you: 'I am 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.