The Self is Within: Thou Art That
अङ्गुष्ठमात्रः पुरुषोऽन्तरात्मा
सदा जनानां हृदये संनिविष्टः ।
तं स्वाच्छरीरात्प्रवृहेन्मुञ्जादिवेषीकां धैर्येण ।
तं विद्याच्छुक्रममृतं तं विद्याच्छुक्रममृतमिति ॥ १७॥
aṅguṣṭhamātraḥ puruṣo’ntarātmā
sadā janānāṃ hṛdaye saṃniviṣṭaḥ .
taṃ svāccharīrātpravṛhenmuñjādiveṣīkāṃ dhairyeṇa .
taṃ vidyācchukramamṛtaṃ taṃ vidyācchukramamṛtamiti .. 17..
The Purusha, not larger than a thumb, the inner Self, always dwells in the hearts of men. Let a man separate Him from his body with steadiness, as one separates the tender stalk from a blade of grass. Let him know that Self as the Bright, as the Immortal-yea, as the Bright, as the Immortal.
Swami Vivekananda Says —
…Even the lowest of the low have the Atman within, which never dies and never is born — of Him whom the sword cannot pierce, nor the fire burn, nor the air dry — immortal, without beginning or end, the all-pure, omnipotent, and omnipresent Atman![Source]
…It is only those that never want to reconcile the man of flesh with the man of truth that make progress. Wherever there is this false idea of reconciling fleshly vanities with the highest ideals, of dragging down God to the level of man, there comes decay. Man should not be degraded to worldly slavery, but should be raised up to God.[Source]
When we free ourselves from name and form, especially from a body — when we need no body, good or bad — then only do we escape from bondage. Eternal progression is eternal bondage; annihilation of form is to be preferred. We must get free from any body, even a “god-body”. God is the only real existence, there cannot be two. There is but One Soul, and I am That.[Source]
One day in Rishikesh Swami Saradananda told Vaikuntha: “By the grace of the Master henceforth I have separated myself from the mind. The vagaries of the mind will not be able to delude me anymore; I am, as it were, the witness.” (Source: God Lived with Them)
On one occasion, Latu Maharaj went with Shuddhananda to listen to a class by Pandit Shashadhar on the Katha Upanishad. The pandit read the verse: “The Purusha, no larger than a thumb, the inner Self, always dwells in the hearts of men. Let a man separate Him from the body with perseverance, as one separates the tender stalk from a blade of grass” (2.3.17). As Latu Maharaj heard this passage, he cried out repeatedly, “Sudhir, the pandit said right.” He must have reached that state himself, otherwise he could not have understood that abstruse Sanskrit passage. (Source: God Lived with Them)
Through discriminative self-analysis and logical thinking one should separate the Pure self within from the sheaths as one separates the rice from the husk, bran, etc., that are covering it.
— Atma Bodha, Verse 16
Svetasvatara Upanishad 1.12-1.16
12 The enjoyer (jiva), the objects of enjoyment and the Ruler (Isvara)-the triad described by the knowers of Brahman-all this is nothing but Brahman. This Brahman alone, which abides eternally within the self, should be known. Beyond It, truly, there is nothing else to be known.
13 The visible form of fire, while it lies latent in its source, the fire-wood, is not perceived; yet there is no destruction of its subtle form. That very fire can be brought out again by means of persistent rubbing of the wood, its source. In like manner, Atman, which exists in two states, like fire, can be grasped in this very body by means of Om.
14 By making the body the lower piece of wood and Om the upper piece and through the practice of the friction of meditation, one perceives the luminous Self, hidden like the fire in the wood.
15-16 As oil exists in sesame seeds, butter in milk, water in river- beds and fire in wood, so the Self is realized as existing within the self, when a man looks for It by means of truthfulness and austerity-when he looks for the Self, which pervades all things as butter pervades milk and whose roots are Self- Knowledge and austerity. That is the Brahman taught by the Upanishad; yea, that is the Brahman taught by the Upanishads.