Sankaracarya's Vivekachudamani 566

घटे नष्टे यथा व्योम व्योमैव भवति स्फुटम् ।

तथैवोपाधिविलये ब्रह्मैव ब्रह्मवित्स्वयम् ॥

ghaṭe naṣṭe yathā vyoma vyomaiva bhavati sphuṭam |

tathaivopādhivilaye brahmaiva brahmavitsvayam ||

(Sankaracarya's Vivekachudamani 566)

Just as when a pot is broken the pot-space becomes the limitless space, so too, when the conditioning is destroyed, the knower of Brahman becomes Brahman Itself.

We have to break our attachment to this world and conditions, The Vedic injunction is just to understand that I am not this body. If anyone is under the concept of this body -- "I am this body," "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am Christian," "I am American," "I am Indian" -- in this way, with the bodily concept of life, we are thinking we are different from one another. At the same time, we desire that there may be unity of the human society, of the human being, and we can live peacefully. That is a very desirable thing. That is the thing we require to understand. But so long we are on the bodily concept of life, this goal cannot be achieved.

Unless we have got the spiritual understanding, we'll have to present ourselves with this bodily designation. This is designation: "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am Christian," "I am Bengali," "I am Sindhi," "I am Punjabi," "I am American" These are all bodily conception of life. And so long we are in the bodily concepts of our life, we are no better than the animals, cats, and dogs. That is the statement of Vedic literature.

yasyatma-buddhih kunape tri-dhatuke

sva-dhih kalatradisu bhauma ijya-dhih

yat-tirtha-buddhih salile na karhicij

janesv abhijnesu sa eva go-kharah

[SB 10.84.13]

Go means cow, and kharah means asses. So yasya atma-buddhih: "A person who thinks himself atma-buddhih, as ‘I am this body...' " Yasyatma-buddhih kunape tri-dhatuke. This body is made of tri-dhatu, three dhatus: kapha, pitta, vayu. "So this kapha, pitta, vayu, this body, I am not this body." This is self-realization. "I am different from this bag of flesh and bone." When we realize it completely, that is the first point of self-realization.

Similarly when the pot is broke, then it has limitation to the air or space.