“I am not the body.”
These words, spoken by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and other Advita texts are repeated in spiritual circles. People say them like a sacred chant. But words, even the wisest ones, can become empty if we rush past their meaning.
What did he truly mean? And what are we missing when we only hear the surface?
If we hold onto “I am not the body” without looking deeper, it can turn into rejection. As if the body were a mistake. As if we need to rise above it to be spiritual. Many people try to use this teaching to float above life. They avoid pain, hunger, tiredness, even love. But that’s not wisdom.
It creates a split- This is “Me” and this is “the body” and we both are separate.
To understand this, try something simple. Look at your hand. Is that who you are? It’s not you. But would you say the hand is separate from you? Of course not. It’s part of you. It came from you. It listens to your will. Like a leaf on a tree, it’s not the whole tree, but it belongs to it completely.
Similarly, the body is not “you”, but isn’t apart from you. You are not only the body, but the totality. The paradox is that this totality also contains your body. How else can it be? Logically if you are the totality, the totality includes everything.
Nisargadatta also said- “ The idea ‘I-am-not-body’ is merely an antidote to the idea ‘I am-the-body”
Nisargadatta was not offering an idea to believe. He was pointing to a way of seeing. He asked us to stay with the simple feeling “I am.” Before the stories, before the roles. Just “I am.” And let that be enough.
What’s left is the quiet wholeness, the immensity of being.
You are not the body. But the body is not apart from you. It rises in you, like a wave in the sea. The wave is not the whole ocean. But you cannot take it out of the ocean either.
So don’t make the mistake of turning against the body. It has its place in the scheme of things. If everything is sacred, so is the body. Don’t treat it like a burden to carry. Let it be a friend. Let it be part of your seeking.
You are not just this body.
You are not just this mind.
You are the space in which both rise and fall.
And nothing is outside of that space of consciousness.
