From book ‘For Salvation of Mankind’ by Shradhey Swamiji Shri Ramsukhdasji Maharaj The Gist of All Spiritual Disciplines

continued.... One vice or virtue reveals itself in different forms according to the situation. To attach more importance to the body than the self i.e., to assume the body as the self is the main flaw (evil) which gives birth to all evils. To attach more importance to the self (Divinity) is the main virtue which gives rise to all virtues.

Arjuna at the beginning of the Gita asked the Lord to instruct him how to attain salvation‘yac chreyaḥ syān niścitaṁ brūhi tan me’ (2/7). In response to this question the Lord first of all described the body and the self. It proves that the man who wants to attain salvation, for him it is necessary to realize ‘I am not the body’. So long as a striver holds that ‘I am the body’, he may listen to so many gospels or preach them to others and may practise spiritual discipline, he will not attain salvation.

In human body there is predominance of discrimination. Therefore only a human being can possess this discrimination ‘I am not the body’. Identification of the self with the body is not humanity but it is beastliness.