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)