The most important measure of our spiritual progress is how much we are able to reduce our identification with and attachment to the body. This can be achieved by regular contemplation on our true nature.

In this episode, Sadguru teaches us to acknowledge that we are not alive because our body is functioning, rather, our body functions because we are alive. The organs exist to facilitate the prāṇa (life force) within us, but the life force is not created by these organs. Essentially, the body is there because the ātman needs a means of expressing itself.

Just as a house does not exist by its own will, but rather by the will of its owner, so too this body exists by the will of the paramātman. Therefore, we should never fear for our body as it isn’t born by our will. Nor does it live, grow or die by our will. It exists or doesn’t exist according to the will of brahman alone.