Editors’ note: When you are identified you lose your own identity by becoming absorbed in the object of your identification – you become the object. Our main identification is with the body. We take the body to be ourselves. Because this identification is so strong and constant we also become attached to what is dear to the body such as money or children, likes and dislikes, with the result that we remain asleep or spiritually dead. Making a separation is the way to break identification.

Identification is one of the last hindrances to be overcome. A person can be identified with God, but in the end even this has to go, to realise unity.