Identification with the body is saṃsāra itself

It is not the body that binds — it is the conviction of being the body. Abhimāna — identification, the mental operation that says “I am this” — is the root from which all branches of suffering grow. The body ages, falls ill, dies, and if I am identified with it, I age, fall ill, die. If I am not identified, the body follows its natural course without my being affected. Vasiṣṭha does not ask you to deny the body — he asks you to distinguish between what you experience and what you are.