The way of the bird

nothing but Brahman, the all-pervading consciousness. There is really nothing that
separates one ornament from another as long as you are looking just at the gold. In the
same way, there is nothing to distinguish one form from another if it is understood that
there is one reality underlying them all.
1.7 "The body is only a covering on me."
In Vedanta, the body is actually only one of five coverings, or kosas. All these coverings,
from the most subtle to the most gross (which is the body) are only an appearance on the
screen of reality. If you take the body to be something that has some independent
existence, you are making a mistake. (Saint Tukaram said "I committed a criminal
mistake, taking the body as true.") The body is an illusion. It comes, stays for a while,
and then goes. Problems arise only when you take yourself to be that illusion. If you see
the illusion as illusion, there is no problem; it can remain there without doing any harm.
1.8 "When the breath goes, nothing remains."
Knowledge of your existence as a living being depends upon the presence of the gross
physical body. The food eaten by the body is processed and the most refined product of
that process is the knowledge "I am." That knowledge is what allows you to experience
everything in this world and to act in it. According to Vedanta, the number of breaths that
the body will take is predetermined and, when that number is reached, the body falls
away. At that point, there will indeed be nothing remaining, because knowledge depends
on the body, and the whole appearance of the world depends on knowledge. If you have
identified yourself with that concept of "I," then you will fear death, because death is the
end of that "I." With Self-knowledge, however, you understand that your true being is
beyond knowledge. You also know that it will not be affected by the disappearance of the
"I" concept, anymore than it was affected by its appearance.
1.9 "Say what is true is true, what is not true is not true always."
One way of looking at the fundamental problem of living is to see that you feel a lack of
completeness, of wholeness. You then try to find the solution to the problem by seeking
happiness in external things. This error is based on the unquestioned assumption that the
world is true. Maharaj therefore urged his disciples to constantly question this assumption
and to go against it by asserting its opposite. The purpose of this assertion is to establish a
habit of correct thinking to replace the old, wrong thinking. There are of course
limitations to this approach. The fundamental problem is a problem of Self-ignorance,
and it can only be resolved by Self-knowledge. Right thinking, in the sense of repetition
of the correct ideas, is not an end in itself, but only one of the means, another way to
make the mind subtle and to prepare it for the understanding of `Who am I."
1.10 "Everything is nothing."
What kind of logic makes "everything" equal to "nothing?" "Everything" here means
every object that can be perceived, including thoughts and feelings as well as gross