Quote from Annamalai Swami: Final Talks by David Godman

Annamalai Swami: Final Talks

Edited by David Godman

Sri annamalai Swami Ashram Trust, Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, 2000. 109 pages.

Though the body is needed for sadhana, one should not identify with it. We should make good use of it, and look after it well, but we should not pay too much attention to it.

There are so many thoughts in mind. Thought after thought after thought, they never stop. But there is one thought that is continuous, though it is mostly subconscious: 'I am the body.' This is the string on which all other thoughts are threaded. Once we identify ourselves with the body by thinking this thought, maya follows. It also follows that if we cease to identify ourselves with the body, maya will not affect us any more.

Maya is fundamentally non-existent. Bhagavan said that maya literally means 'that which is not.' It is unreal because everything that maya produces is an outgrowth of a wrong idea. It is a consequence of taking something to be true that is not really true.  page 14

Quote submitted by Jennifer Knight

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