Swami Annamalai

Indian spiritual teacher.

A revered spiritual teacher from South India who embodied non-dual wisdom, he emphasized direct experience over intellectual study. His teachings, rooted in the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, often focused on self-inquiry and silent contemplation. His discourses and practical guidance helped many seekers awaken to the essence of pure awareness and inner peace. He is remembered for his simplicity, humility, and profound insight.

Swami Annamalai Quotes about Body

All Thoughts(17)Mind(14)Body(7)Consciousness(6)Time(4)Peace(4)Practice(3)Awareness(3)

In every moment you only have one real choice: to be aware of the Self or to identify with the body and the mind.
Swami Annamalai
20
Sadhana is a battlefield. You have to be vigilant. Don't take delivery of wrong beliefs and don't identify with the incoming thoughts that will give you pain and suffering. But if these things start happening to you, fight back by affirming, 'I am the Self; I am the Self; I am the Self;'. These affirmations will lessen the power of the 'I am the body' arrows and eventually they will armour-plate you so successfully, the 'I am the body' thoughts that come your way will no longer have the power to touch you, affect you or make you suffer.
Swami Annamalai
17
The mind and the body are both inert. Any energy or peace you experience can only come from the Self. Drop the identification with the body. These experiences are making you too body-conscious. Just be aware of the Self and try to pay as little attention as possible to the body. The Self is pure energy, pure power. Hold onto that.
Swami Annamalai
15
There are so many thoughts in the mind. Thought after thought after thought. But there is one thought that is continuous, though it is mostly sub-conscious: 'I am the body'. This is the string on which all other thoughts are threaded. Once we identify ourselves with the body by thinking this thought, maya follows. It also follows that if we cease to identify with the body, maya will not affect us anymore.
Swami Annamalai
8
Bhagavan is always present, inside you and in front of you. If you don't cover the vision of Bhagavan with your ego, that will be enough. The ego is the 'I am the body' idea. Remove this idea and you shine as the Self.
Swami Annamalai
6
Mind is only a collection of thoughts and the thinker who thinks them. The thinker is the 'I'-thought, the primal thought which rises from the Self before all others, which identifies with all other thoughts and says, 'I am this body'. When you have eradicated all thoughts except for the thinker himself by ceaseless enquiry or by refusing to give them any attention, the 'I'-thought sinks into the Heart and surrenders, leaving behind it only an awareness of consciousness.
Swami Annamalai
5
If you can maintain the siege for long enough, a time will come when no more thoughts arise; or if they do, they will only be fleeting, undistracting images on the periphery of consciousness. In that thought-free state you will begin to experience yourself as consciousness, not as mind or body.
Swami Annamalai
5