Sri Bhagavan said:
The says, “I am the body”; the says, “I am the body”; what is the difference? ‘I am’ is the truth. The body is the limitation. The ajnāni limits the ‘I’ to the body. ‘I’ remains independent of the body in sleep. The same ‘I’ is now in the wakeful state. Though imagined to be within the body, ‘I’ is without the body. The wrong notion is not ‘I am the body.’ ‘I’ says so. The body is insentient and cannot say so. The mistake lies in thinking that ‘I’ is what ‘I’ is not. ‘I’ is not insentient. ‘I’ cannot be the inert body. The body’s movements are confounded with ‘I’ and misery is the result. Whether the body works or not, ‘I’ remains free and happy. The ajnāni’s ‘I’ is body only. That is the whole error. The jnāni’s ‘I’ includes the body and everything else. Clearly some intermediate entity arises and gives rise to the confusion.
Mr. Vaidyanatha Iyer, a lawyer, asked: If the says “I am the body,” what happens to him in death?
M.: He does not identify himself with the body, even now.
D.: But you said just before that the jnāni says “I am the body.”
M.: Yes. His ‘I’ includes the body. For there cannot be anything apart from ‘I’ for him. If the body falls away there is no loss for the ‘I’. ‘I’ remains the same. If the body feels dead let it raise the question. Being inert it cannot. ‘I’ never dies and does not ask the question. Who then dies? Who asks questions?
D.: For whom are all the Sastras then? They cannot be for the real ‘I’. They must be for the unreal ‘I’. The real one does not require them. It is strange that the unreal should have so many sastras for him.
M.: Yes. Quite so. Death is only a thought and nothing more. He who thinks raises troubles. Let the thinker tell us what happens to him in death. The real ‘I’ is silent. One should not think ‘I am this,—I am not that’. To say ‘this or that’ is wrong. They are also limitations. Only ‘I am’ is the truth. Silence is ‘I’. If one thinks ‘I am this’, another thinks ‘I am this’ and so on, there is a clash of thoughts and so many religions are the result. The truth remains as it is, not affected by any statements, conflicting or otherwise.
D.: What is death? Is it not the falling away of the body?
M.: Do you not desire it in sleep? What goes wrong then?
D.: But I know I shall wake up.
M.: Yes—thought again. There is the preceding thought ‘I shall wake up’. Thoughts rule the life. Freedom from thoughts is one’s true nature—Bliss.