https://www.sriramanateachings.org/The_Path_of_Sri_Ramana_Part_One.pdf
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On one occasion Bhagavan Sri Ramana is reported to have said – on the subject of sadhana – That it cannot be done : the ego cannot want Liberation (its own disappearance) and the Self needs neither the ego nor “sadhana”. What remains to be done is to let Self do the sadhana. How? By relaxing, by “doing nothing”. How? By submitting, which is devotion. How? By knowing how?
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On the damp ground where Sri Ramana was sitting were many ants, termites, mosquitoes, flies and centipedes. They began to eat away the lower side of His thighs and blood started oozing out. The oozing blood clotted, pus formed, and both mixed with the mud, thus sealing the body to the ground. Yet He was not at all disturbed by this, for He knew nothing of it. Do we not read stories in the puranas about Rishis such as Valmiki who were immersed in tapas while ant-hills grew over their bodies and birds
made nests and lived on their heads? By living thus before our eyes, Sri Ramana has proved in modern times that these stories were not false!
....Though it was day-time, Venkatachala Mudaliar took a lantern and along with some others entered the Patala Lingam. They called Sri Ramana loudly, but as there was no response they lifted His body. Alas, because the body was sealed to the earth and was now forcibly separated, blood rushed out through the fresh wounds! On seeing this they were awe-struck. Carefully and gently they brought the body out and kept it in the Gopuram Subramania temple. Even then Sri Ramana did not regain body-consciousness, but remained in samadhi!
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“According to the prarabdha (i.e. destiny) of each one, He, its Ordainer, being in every place [i.e. in every soul] will make it play its role. That which is not to happen will never happen, however hard one tries. That which is to happen will not stop, in spite of any amount of obstruction. This is certain! Hence, to remain silent is the best.”
“The state of one who abides unshaken in SeIf has more grandeur than the mightiest mountain:” “Tirukkural”, verse 124
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“Silence is the unequalled eloquence – the state of Grace that rises within.” – Sri Bhagavan
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“If one enquires–without inadvertence (pramada) – into the form of the mind, it will be found that there is no such thing as mind! This is the direct path for all!” ‘Upadesa Undhiyar’, verse 17
"The mind is only thoughts. Of all thoughts, the thought ‘I’ is indeed the root-thought. Therefore, what is called mind is only the thought ‘I’ (i.e. the feeling ‘I am the body').” 'Upadesa Undhiyar, verse 18
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"If there is no ‘I'-thought, no other thing will exist...” 'Sri Arunachala Ashtakam', verse 7
"The thought ‘I am this body of flesh and blood’ is the one thread on which are strung the various other thoughts. Therefore if we turn inwards, ‘Where is this I?', all thoughts [including the ‘I'- thought] will come to an end and Self-knowledge will then spontaneously shine forth within the cave (the heart) as ‘I-I' ...” ‘Atmavidya Kirtanam', verse 2
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Thus, the method of destroying the ‘I'-thought is also the method which will destroy all other thoughts. Therefore, what is essential is to destroy the first person thought, ‘I'. The only way to destroy it is to scrutinize its nature! There is no other way!!
“...How else to attain that state wherein ‘I’ (the ego) does not rise – the state of egolessness – unless we seek the source whence ‘I’ rises?...” ‘UIladu Narpadhu’, verse 27
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“To know existence (sat), there is no consciousness (chit) other than existence itself; existence is therefore consciousness. . .” ‘Upadesa Undhiyar’, verse 23
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“This formless and ghostly ego (i.e. it has no form of its own) comes into existence by grasping a body-form! Having grasped a form, it endures, and having grasped a form, it waxes more by feeding upon forms, Leaving one form, it grasps another
form. When sought for, it takes to flight; what a wonder it is ! Thus should you know.” ‘Ulladhu Narpadu’ verse 25
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The true import of the sastras cannot be learnt except from Jnanis, that is, those who have had and live in the direct experience of Reality; no one can understand the true spirit behind any of the sastras merely by his command over language or by his keenness and superiority of intellect.
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“Since the sastras proclaim, ‘Thou art That which is called the Supreme’, and since That itself always shines as Self, for one to meditate ‘I am That and not this (the body and so on)’, instead of knowing oneself through the enquiry ‘What am I?’ and abiding as Self, is indeed due to lack of strength (of mind) !” Ulladhu Narpadhu verase 32
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Just as none of the wives will remain unwidowed when the husband dies, so all the three karmas will be extinguished when the doer (the ego) dies,
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Concerning this, Sri Bhagavan has given clear instructions in His prose work ‘Who am I’, where He explains: “If other thoughts arise, see to whom they arise. ‘To me’ will be the answer; [this, me’ will remind you of the ‘I’-consciousness]. Then the mind can return immediately to Self. attention, ‘Who am I’. By repeatedly practising thus, the strength of the mind to abide in its source increases.”
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The power which the mind derives from other spiritual practices is not that power which is required to abide in its source! Repetition of holy names (japa), meditation (dhyana), concentration on anyone of the six yogic centres in the body (the shadchakras pointed out in raja yoga). concentration on a divine effulgence (jyoti) or sound (nada) – in all these practices the mind is only made to attend to some alien object (a second or third person). The strength of mind acquired by training it to catch hold of anyone of the aforesaid alien objects is not the genuine strength of mind which is favourable for Self--knowledge. Being unfavourable, rather than calling it ‘strength of mind’
it would be more appropriate to call it ‘lack of strength of mind’ (uran inmai – the original Tamil words of Sri Bhagavan in ‘Ulladhu Narpadhu’, verse 32)! Let us suppose a man buys a cow and for various reasons keeps it tied up in another man’s shed for quite some days. When the owner one day tries to bring the cow to its own shed after it has become accustomed – through force of habit (abhyasa bala) – to its former surroundings, will it come to its own place
and keep quiet? No, it will run back to the other man’s shed. So any intelligent farmer buying a new cow will train it to remain in its own shed by tying it only there. Similarly.
aspirants who have developed mental strength by concentrating on second and third person objects (which are other than Self) struggle and find it difficult even to understand what Self-attention – knowing one’s own existence – is, and how to take the feeling of one’s own existence as the target ! It is often said, “Let me first gain strength of mind by training it in other practices, and then let me take to Self-enquiry”; but it is the experience of anyone who has trained his mind in other practices over a long period of time that such a mind is still weaker to turn Self wards than even an ordinary mind untrained in any other practice.
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.......But for a mind which engages in Selfattention from the very beginning, both kinds of requisite strength are naturally cultivated.
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Gita 6/25
‘By means of an extremely courageous intellect (power of discrimination), make the mind motionless little by little; fix the mind firmly in Self (atman) and never think of any other thing’ (chapter 6, verse 25), and:
‘Towards whatever thing the unsteady mind wanders, from each thing pull it back, fix it always in Self and make it firmly abide there’ (chapter 6, verse 26)
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Only that practice of Self-attention which Sri Bhagavan referred to in ‘Who am I?’ when He wrote, “By repeatedly practising thus, the strength of the mind to abide in its source increases”, is the right sadhana which will give the mind the real requisite strength!
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Those aspirants who came to Sri Bhagavan with a mind not already spoilt by being trained towards targets other than Self, a mind with no trace of lethargy, with immense eagerness, and with a spirit of unquestioning obedience like that of children, directly turned their mind to the practice of Self-attention in the form of ‘Who am I?’ as soon as they came to Sri Bhagavan and thereby gained the real requisite strength mentioned above. They were therefore able to proclaim from their own experience, “Ah! Knowing Self is the easiest thing! Indeed, it is the easiest!”
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Although the enquiry ‘Who am I?’ is thus able to give the real strength of mind which is required to gain Self-knowledge (to say the truth, only Self-enquiry, and not any of the other sadhanas, can give this requisite strength), a wrong idea exists and is, spreading even among us,44 the
devotees of Sri Bhagavan, that the path of Self-enquiry is difficult while the other methods, japa, dhyana, yoga and so on, are easy. Let us see how far from true this contention is ! Now, what is the opinion of Sri Bhagavan on this subject ? Let us turn to His own words: “...of all paths, this path is the easiest! 45” ’Atmavidya Kirtanam’, verse 4 “... this is the direct path for all !” ‘Upadesa Undhiyar’, verse 17
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Thus it is clear that Sri Bhagavan’s opinion is that this path of Self-enquiry is not merely the easiest of all paths, but that it is also the easiest and most direct for all aspirants. Some of us, instead of trying to understand, ‘Why did Sri Bhagavan say so ? Can there be a justification for His opinion? If so, what is it?’, remark evasively, “Ah, it is easy only for Bhagavan, but it is difficult for others,” and they
become disheartened and lose courage. In order not to lose this courage, since it is the sraddha which alone will secure us the goal, let us try to find the justification in support of the opinion of Sri Bhagavan.
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45 “To unfasten the bonds of karma and so on, end to achieve the destruction of birth and so on, of all paths, this path is the easiest ! If we remain still (that is, if we merely ‘be’), without the least action of mind, speech and body, oh what a wonder it will be I The Selfeffulgence in the heart will be (known as) the ever-present experience, all fear will cease and the ocean of bliss (will surge) !” ‘Atmavidya Kirtanam’, verse 4 It should be noted here that in describing His path, Sri Bhagavan uses the superlative ‘the easiest’. In other paths, some work or other is prescribed to be done through the mind, speech or body, and hence one may experience some difficulty in using these instruments. But, as no work is given to them in the way of sadhana in the path of Self
enquiry, this is ‘the easiest of all path’!
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“Why, certainly I exist!”. He is able to know his own existence by his Self-light (
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.....when viewed in the light ot the above. mentioned definition of ‘easy’ and difficult’, one can plainly see that the effort made in the path of Self-enquiry, which is an attention towards the first person, is far easier than that made in japa, dhyana, yoga and so on, which are nothing but attention towards second and third person objects.
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“O Bhagavan, meditating upon You is nothing other than contemplating ‘I’, Contemplating ‘I’ is nothing other than remaining without thought, Remaining without thought is nothing other than being vigilantly attentive not to rise as ‘I’, But why even attend, when my very existence (sat) is itself attention (chit) ?” ‘Sri Ramana Sahasram’, verse 990
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“...Since the Reality (‘I’) exists within, beyond thought, who can and how to meditate upon that Reality, which is called the Heart? To abide in the Heart as It is (that is, without thought) is truly meditating (upon It) I Thus should you know.” ‘Ulladhu Narpadhu’, benedictory verse 1
Until one gains the true experience of Brahman (Brahman-bhava), in whatever way one may meditate on Brahman, it will only be a thought about a second or third person, But instead, if one simply meditates ‘I, I’, since it is a first person attention, the ‘I’ thought which has thus started to meditate will drown in its source and lose its form and separate existence, just like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre and like the reflection of the sun directed from a mirror towards the sun itself.
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After the conviction 'My true existence-consciousness is God or Brahman’ has been well stabilized in an aspirant
through the strength of such meditation, at an opportune moment the knowledge ‘Do I not always exist! Why then should I meditate in order to exist ?’ will flash, and thus his attention will be drawn back all of a sudden and fixed on his existence-consciousness. This Self-attention is exactly the technique of Self-enquiry.
Since through this Selfattention the meditation ‘I am Brahman’ has now become unnecessary; the aspirant remains in his true existence, ‘I am’ (aham asmi), which is the state of thought free consciousness; this is what is mentioned in verse 9. At any
rate, what has to take place finally in the aspirant is Selfattention, which is the Self-enquiry taught by Sri Bhagavan. This love towards Self (swatma-bhakti) is the very nature of supreme devotion (parabhokti tattva, as mentioned in verse 9), and that is liberation.
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Thus, from verse 16 to 29, Sri Bhagavan teaches that the enquiry ‘Who am I?’ is the correct path of knowledge, and concludes ‘Upadesa Undhiyar’ by declaring in verse 30 that the only right tapas is to know and remain in Self, and not anything else.
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.......Because, Self (atman) does not exist as an object to be known by us who seek to know it ! Since Self shines as the very nature of him who tries to know it! Self-enquiry does not mean enquiring into a second or third person object. It is in order to make us understand this from the very beginning that Bhagavan Ramana named Self-enquiry as ‘Who am I ?’, thus drawing our attention directly to the first person. In this question, ‘Who am I?’, ‘I am’ denotes Self and ‘who’ stands for the enquiry
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Self-enquiry is unnecessary for Self and Selfknowledge is impossible for the ego
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Since, whether we know it or not, Self, which is now wrongly considered by us to be unknown, is verily our reality, the very nature of our (the Supreme Self’s) attention itself is Grace (anugraha).
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The practice of witnessing thoughts and events, which is much recommended nowadays by lecturers and writers, was never even in the least recommended by Sri Bhagavan,
“Not attending to what-is-other (that is, to any second or third person) is non-attachment (vairagya) or desirelessness (nirasa)”, we should clearly understand that attending to (witnessing, watching, observing or seeing) anything other than Self is itself attachment, and when we understand thus we will realize how meaningless and impractical are such instructions as ‘Watch all thoughts and events with detachment’ or ‘Witness your thoughts, but be not attached to them’, which are taught by the so-called gurus of the present day
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That is why it is impossible for the mind to negate anything by thinking60 ‘I am not this, I am not this’ (neti, neti).- On the other hand, if our (Self’s) attention is directed only towards ourself, our knowledge of our existence alone is nourished, and since the mind is not attended to, it is deprived of its strength, the support of our Grace. “Without use when left to stay, iron and mischief rust away” – in accordance with this Tamil proverb, since they are not attended to, all the ‘vasana-seeds, whose nature is
to rise stealthily and mischievously, have to stay quiet, and
thus they dry up like seeds deprived of water and become too weak to sprout out into thought-plants. Then, when the fire of Self-knowledge (jnana) blazes forth, these tendencies (vasanas), like well-dried firewood, become a prey to it. This alone is how the total destruction of all tendencies (vasanakshaya) is effected
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,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Thus Bhagavan Ramana has declared categorically that Self-attention alone is the correct technique of eliminating the five sheaths !
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Although we formally refer to it as ‘directed’, in truth it is not of the nature of a ‘doing’ (kriya-rupam) in the form of directing or being directed; it is of the nature of ‘being’ or ‘existing’ (sat-rupam). Because the second and third persons (including thoughts) are alien or external to us, our attention paid to them was of the nature of a ‘doing’ (krlya). But this very attention, when fixed on the non-alien first person feeling, ‘I’, loses the nature of ‘paying’ and remains in the form of ‘being’, and therefore it is of the nature of non-doing (akriya) or inaction (nishkriya). So long as our power of attention was dwelling upon second and third persons, it was called ‘the mind’ or ‘the intellect’, and
its attending was called a doing (kriya) or an action (karma). Only that which is done by the mind is an action. But on the other hand, as soon as the attention is fixed on the first person (or Self), it loses its mean names such as mind, intellect or ego sense. Moreover, that attention is no longer even an action, but inaction (akarma) or the state of ‘being still’ (summa iruttal). Therefore, the mind which attends to Self is no more the mind; it is the consciousness aspect of Self (atma-chit-rupam)! Likewise, so long as it attends to the second and third persons (the world), it is not the consciousness aspect of Self; It is the mind, the reflected
form of consciousness (chit-abhasa-rupam)! Hence, since Self-attention is not a doing (kriya), it is not an action (karma). That is, Self alone realizes Self; the ego does not !
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The mind which has obtained a burning desire for Self-attention, which is Self-enquiry, is said to be the fully mature one (pakva manas).
Since it is not at all now inclined to attend to any second or third parson, it can be said that it has reached the pinnacle of desirelessness (vairagya).
For, do not all sorts of desires and attachments pertain only to second and third persons? Since this mind, which has very well understood that (as already seen in earlier chapters) the consciousness which shines as ‘I’ alone is the source of full and real happiness, now seeks Self because of its natural craving for happiness, this intense desire to attend to Self is indeed the highest form of devotion (bhakti). It is exactly this Self-attention of the mind which is thus fully mature through such devotion and desirelessness (bhakti-vairagya) that is to be called the enquiry ‘Who am I ?’ taught by Bhagavan Sri Ramana!
Well, will not at least such a mature mind which has come to the path of Sri Ramana, willingly agreeing to engage in Self-attention, realize Self ? No, no, it has started for its doom ! Agreeing to commit suicide, it places its neck (through Self-attention) on the scaffold where it is to be sacrificed
How ? Only so long as it was attending to second and third persons did it have the name ‘mind’, but as soon as Self-attention is begun, its name and form (its name as mind and its form as thoughts) are lost. So we can no longer say that Self-attention or Self-enquiry is performed by the mind, Neither is it the mind that attends to Self, nor is the natural spontaneous Self-attention of the consciousness aspect of Self (atma-chit-rupam), which is not the mind, an activity ! “
“A naked lie then it would be If any man were to say that he Realized the Self, diving within Through proper enquiry set in,
Not for knowing but for death The good-for-nothing ego’s worth ! ’This Arunachala alone, The Self, by which the Self is known !” ‘Sri Arunachala Venba’ verse 39
The feeling ‘I am’ is the experience common to one and all. In this, ‘am’ is consciousness or knowledge. This knowledge is not of anything external; it is the knowledge of oneself, This is chit. This consciousness is ‘we’, “We are verily consciousness”, says Sri Bhagavan in ‘Upadesa Undhiyar’ verse 23. This is our ‘being’ (that is, our true existence) or sat. This is called ‘that which is’ (ulladhu). Thus in ‘I am’, ‘I’ is existence (sat) and ‘am’ is consciousness (chit). When Self, our nature of existence-consciousness (satchit swarupam), instead of shining only as the pure consciousness ‘I am’, shines mixed with an adjunct (upadhi) as ‘I am a man, I am Rama, I am so-and-so, I am this or
that’, then this mixed consciousness is the ego. This mixed consciousness can rise only by catching hold of a name and form. When we feel ‘I am a man, I am Rama, I am sitting, I am lying’, is it not clear that we have mistaken the body for ‘I’, and that we have assumed its name and postures as ‘I am this and I am thus’? – The feeling ‘this and thus’ which has now risen mixed with the pure consciousness ‘I am’ (satchit) is what is called ‘thought’, This is the first thought.
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The feeling ‘I am a man, I am so-and-so’ is only a thought. But the consciousness ‘I am’ is not a thought; it is the very nature of our ‘being’.
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‘Whence?’, a place, conditioned by time and space, will be experienced within the body ‘two digits to the right from the centre of the chest’ (as said in ‘Ulladhu Narpadhu – Anubandham’ verse 18). Yet this experience is not the ultimate or absolute one (paramarthikam). For, Sri Bhagavan has positively asserted that Heart (hridayam) is verily Self-consciousness, which is timeless, spaceless, formless and nameless.
“He who thinks that Self (or Heart) is within the insentient body, while in fact the body is within Self, is like one who thinks that the screen, which supports the cinema picture, is contained within the picture ‘“ ‘Ekatma Panchakam’, verse 3
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Finding a place in the body as the rising-point of the ego in reply to the question ‘Whence?’ is not the objective of Sri Bhagavan’s teachings; nor is it the fruit to be gained by Self-enquiry. Sri Bhagavan has declared clearly the objective of His teachings and the fruit to be gained by seeking the rising--place of the ego as follows:
“When sought within ‘What is the place from which it rises as I?’, ‘I’ (the ego) will die ! This is Self-enquiry (jnana-vichara) .” ‘Upadesa Undhiyar’, verse 19
Therefore, the result which is aimed at when seeking the rising-place of the ego is the annihilation of that ego and not an experience of a place in the body
It is only in reply to the immature people who – not able to have even an intellectual understanding (paroksha jnana) about the nature of Self, which shines alone as the one, non-dual thing, unlimited by (indeed, absolutely unconnected with) time and space, unlimited even in the form ‘Brahman is everywhere, Brahman is at all times, Brahman is everything’ (sarvatra brahma, sarvada brahma, sarvam brahma) – always raise the question, “Where is the seat for Self in the body?”, that the sastras and sometimes even Sri Bhagavan had to say: “... two digits to the right (from the centre of the chest)
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Heart, 2 digits to the right?
......His translations of others’ works, nor even in any of the conversations with Him recorded by devotees – has Sri Bhagavan ever recommended this practice (for meditation upon the right side of the chest or upon any other part of the transient, insentient and alien body is nothing but an attention to a second person, an object other than ‘I’), and when asked about it, He in fact used to condemn it (see ‘Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi’, number 273)
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....... The reader may here refer to ‘Maharshi’s, Gospel’, Book II, chapter IV, ‘The Heart is the Self’ (8th edition, 1969, pages 68 to 72; 9th edition, 1979, pages 72 to 76)
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Thus, attending to oneself in the form ‘Whence am I?’ is enquiring into the ego, the ‘rising I’, But, while enquiring ‘Who am I ?’, there are some aspirants who take the feeling ‘I’ to be their ‘being’ (existence) and not their ‘rising’ ! If it is taken thus, that is attention to Self. It is just to understand clearly the difference between these two forms of enquiry that the difference between our ‘rising’ and our ‘being’ has been explained earlier in this chapter, Just as the correct meaning of the term ‘meditation upon Brahman’ (brahmadhyanam) used by the sastras up till now is explained by Sri Bhagavan in the last two lines of the first benedictory
verse of ‘Ulladhu Narpadhu’ to be ‘abiding in the Heart as it is’ (that is to say, abiding as Self is the correct way of meditating upon it), so also, the correct meaning of the term ‘Self-enquiry’ (atma-vichara) is here rightly explained to be ‘turning Selfwards’ (or attending to Self),
In either of these two kinds of enquiry (‘Who am I’?’ or ‘Whence am I ?’), since the attention of the aspirant is focused only on himself, nothing other than Self (atman), which is the true import of the word ‘I’, will be finally experienced.
Therefore, the ultimate result of both the enquiries, ‘Whence am I ?’ and ‘Who am I ?’, is the same ! How? He who seeks ‘Whence am I ?’ is following the ego, the form of which is ‘I am so-and-so’, and while doing so, the adjunct ‘so-and-so, having no real existence, dies on the way, and thus he remains established in Self, the surviving ‘I am’. On the other hand, he who seeks ‘Who am I ? drowns effortlessly in his real natural ‘being’ (Self), which
ever shines as ‘I am that I am’, Therefore, whether done in the form ‘Whence am I?’ or ‘Who am I ?’, what is absolutely essential is that Self-attention should be pursued till the very end. Moreover, it is not necessary for sincere aspirants even to name before-hand the feeling ‘I’ either as ego or as Self,
For, are there two persons in the aspirant, the ego and Self?
This is said because, since everyone of us has the experience ‘I am one only and not two’. we should not give room to an imaginary dual feeling – one ‘I’ seeking for another ‘I’ – by differentiating ego and Self as ‘lower self’ and higher-self’
“ ... Are there two selves, one to be an object known by the other? For, the true experience of all is ‘I am one’ !” ‘Ulladhu Narpadhu’, verse 33 - asks Sri Bhagavan.
Thus it is sufficient if we cling to the feeling ‘I’ uninterruptedly till the very end.
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Such attention to the feeling ‘I’, the common daily experience of everyone, is what is meant by Self-attention,
For those who accept as their basic knowledge the ‘I am the body’ – consciousness (jiva bhaval, being unable to doubt its (the ego’s) existence, it is suitable to take to Self-attention (that is, to do Self-enquiry) in the form ‘Whence am I ?’, On the other hand, for those who instead of assuming that they have an individuality (jiva bhava) such as ‘I am so-and-so’ or ‘I am this’, attend thus, ‘What is this feeling which shines as I am?’, it is suitable to be fixed in Self-attention in the form ‘Who am I ?’ What is important to be sure of during practice (sadhana) is that our attention is turned only towards ‘I’, the first person singular feeling.
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My existence is shining clearly and unobstructed! So this perishable body is not ‘I’! I am verily the immortal ‘I’ (Self) !! Of all things, I alone am the reality ! This body is subject to death; but I who transcend the body am eternally living ! Even the death that came to the body was unable to touch me !’ Thus it dawned directly, and along with it the fear of death that had come at first also vanished, never to appear again! All this was experienced in a split second as direct knowledge (pratyaksham) and not as mere
reasoning thoughts. From that time onwards, the consciousness (chit) of my existence (sat) transcending the body has ever continued to remain the same” – thus Sri Ramana narrated.
.........On account of this fear of death, the concentration of Sri Bhagavan was fixed and deeply immersed in Selfattention in order to find out ‘What is my existence ? What is it that dies ?’. Thus it is proved by what Sri Bhagavan Himself did that, as we have been explaining all along, only such a firm fixing of our attention on Self is ‘Self-enquiry’ (atma-vichara). He has confirmed the same idea in the work’ Who am I’?”, where He says: “Always keeping the mind (the attention) fixed In Self (in the feeling ‘I’) alone is called Selfenquiry’... Remaining firmly in Self-abidance, without giving even the least room to the rising of any thought other thanthe thought of Self (that is, without giving even the least
attention to any second or third person, but only to Self),
is surrendering oneself to God (which alone is called parabhakti, the supreme devotion65)”. When Sri Bhagavan was asked, ‘What is the means and technique to hold constantly on to the ‘I’ -consciousness?’, He revealed in His works the technique of Self-enquiry which, as explained above, He had undertaken in His early age, but in a more detailed manner as follows:-
“Self (atman) is that which is self-shining in the form ‘I am that I am’. One should not imagine it to be anything such as this or that (light or sound). Imagining’ or thinking thus is itself bondage.
Since Self is the consciousness which is neither light nor darkness, let it not be imagined as a light of any kind. That thought itself would be a bondage.
The annihilation of the ego (the primal thought) alone is liberation (mukti).
All the three bodies consisting of the five sheaths are contained in the feeling ‘I am the body’; therefore if, by the enquiry ‘Who is this I ?’ (that is, by Selfattention), the identification with (attachment to) the gross body alone is removed, the identification with the other two bodies will automatically cease to exist. As it is only by clinging to this that the identifications with the subtle and casual bodies live, there is no need to annihilate these identifications separately
“How to enquire? Can the body, which is insentient like a log and such things, shine and function as ‘I’? It cannot.
“The body cannot say ‘I’ ...” ‘Ulladhu Narpadhu’, verse 23
Therefore, discarding the corpse-like body as an actual corpse and remaining without even uttering the word ‘I’ vocally -– “Discarding the body as a corpse, not uttering the word ‘I’ by mouth, but seeking with the mind diving inwards ‘Whence does this I rise ?’ alone is the path of knowledge (jnana marga) ...” ‘Ulladhu Narpadhu’, verse 29
if keenly observed what that feeling is which now shines’ as ‘I’, a sphurana66 alone will be experienced without sound as ‘I-I’ in the heart. “When the mind reaches the Heart by enquiring within ‘Who am I ?’, he, ‘I’ (the ego), falling down abashed, the One (the Reality) appears spontaneously as ‘I-I’ (I am that I am) ...” ‘Ulladhu Narpadhu’, verse 30
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“When sought within ‘What is the place from which it rises as I ?’, ‘I’ (the ego) will die. This is Self-enquiry.” ‘Upadesa Undhiyar’, verse 19
“Where this ‘I’ dies, there and then shines forth spontaneously the One as ‘I-I’ That alone is the Whole (puranam)” ‘Upadesa Undhiyar’, verse 20 “If without leaving it we just be, the sphurana,
completely annihilating the feeling of individuality – the
ego, ‘I am the body’, finally will come to an end just as the camphor flame dies out. This alone is proclaimed to be liberation by Sages and scriptures.
“Although in the beginning, on account of the tendencies towards sense-objects (vishaya-vasanas) which have been recurring down the ages, thoughts rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as the aforesaid Self-attention becomes more and more intense. Since even the doubt “Is it possible to destroy all of them and to remain as Self alone ?’ is only a thought, without giving room even to that thought, one should persistently cling fast to Self-attention.
However great a sinner one may be, if, not lamenting ‘Oh, I am a sinner! How can I attain salvation?’ but completely giving up even the thought that one is a sinner, one is steadfast in Selfattention, one will surely be saved. Therefore everyone, diving deep within himself with desirelessness (vairagya), can attain the pearl of Self.
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.By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to, abide in its source increases. When the mind thus abides in the Heart, the first thought, ‘I’ (‘I am the body’, the rising ‘I’), which is the root of all other thoughts, itself having vanished, the ever-existing Self (the being ‘I’) alone will shine. The place (or state) where even the slightest trace of the thought ‘I’ (‘I am this, that, the body, Brahman and so on’) does not exist, alone is Self. That alone is called Silence (maunam).
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“After coming to know that the final decision of all the scriptures (sastras) is that such destruction of the mind alone is liberation (mukti), to read scriptures unlimitedly is fruitless. In order to destroy the mind, it is necessary to enquire who one is; then how, instead of enquiring thus within oneself, to enquire and know who one, is in scriptures ? For Rama to know himself to be Rama, is a mirror necessary ? (That is to say, for one to know oneself through Self-attention to be ‘I am’, are scriptures necessary ?) ‘Oneself’ is within the five sheaths, whereas the scriptures are outside them. Therefore, how can oneself, who is to be attended to within, setting aside even the five sheaths, be found in scriptures? Since scripture-enquiry is futile, one should give it up and take to Self-enquiry” – thus says Bhagavan Sri Ramana.
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........“Two digits ‘to the right from the centre of the chest is the heart”). But, does the sun really lie thus on the ground at that spot ? No, that is only the place whence the reflected beam rises ! What should he do if he wants to see the real sun ! He must keep his eyes positioned along the straight line in which the reflected beam comes and, without moving them to either side of it. follow it towards the reflected sun which is then visible to him
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.....Just as the man in the dark room, deciding to see the source of the reflected beam which has come into the room, gives up the desire either to enjoy or to make research about the things there with the help of that reflected beam, so a man who wants to know the real Light (Self) must give up all efforts towards enjoying or knowing about the various worlds which shine only by means of the mind-light functioning through the five senses, since he cannot know
Self either if he is deluded by cognizing and desiring external objects (like a worldly man) or if he is engaged in investigating them (like our modern scientists). This giving up of attention towards external sense-objects is desirelessness (vairagya) or inward renunciation.
The eagerness to see whence the reflected ray comes into the room corresponds to the eagerness to see whence the ego. ‘I’, the mind-light, rises.
This eagerness is love for Self (swatma-bhakti).
Keeping the eyes positioned along the straight line of the beam without straying away to one side or the other corresponds to the one-pointed attention fixed unswervingly on the ‘I’ – consciousness.
Is not the man now
moving along the straight line of the reflected beam from the dark room towards the piece of mirror lying outside? This moving corresponds to diving within towards the Heart
“Just as one would dive in order to find something that had fallen into the water, so one should dive within with a keen (introverted) mind, controlling breath and speech, and know the rising-place of the rising ego. Know thus !” ‘Ulladhu Narpadhu’, verse 28
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.......Until there is a rising of a thought on account of non-vigilance (pramada) in Self-attention, this retention (kumbhaka) will continue in an enquirer quite effortlessly
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......Similarly, the breath will stop automatically as soon as the mind, with an intense longing to see its original form of light and with earnest onepointedness, begins to turn keenly and remain within
In this state of retention (kumbhaka), no matter how long it continues, the enquirer does not experience suffocation, that is, the urge to exhale or inhale.
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.....But what you are now experiencing is the direct (saksha) sunlight. When the place where you are now is nothing but the unlimited space of light, can a darkness come into existence because of the void created by the disappearance of the reflected ray? Can its disappearance be a loss? Know that its disappearance itself is the true light; it is not darkness”.
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"...Know that I (Self) is the true knowledge; It is not a void!” 'Ulladhu Narpadhu', verse 12
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....Therefore, know that you, who know even the void as ‘this is a void’, alone are the true knowledge; you are not a void70 !”, in an instant as a direct experience of the shining of his own existence-consciousness by touching (flashing as sphurana) in Heart as Heart! The aspirant who started the search ‘Whence am I?’ or ‘Who am I ?’ now attains the nondual Self-knowledge, the true knowledge ‘I am that I am’, which is devoid of the limitations of a particular place or time.
Clinging to the consciousness ‘I’ and thereby acquiring a greater and greater intensity of concentration upon it, is diving deep within. Instead of thus diving within, many, thinking that they are engaged in Self-enquiry, sit down for hours together simply repeating mentally or vocally, “Who am I ?” or “Whence am I?”. There are others again who, when they sit for enquiry, face their thoughts and endlessly repeat mentally the following questions taught by Sri Bhagavan. “To whom come these thoughts? To me; who am I?”, or sometimes they even wait for the next thought to come up so that they can fling these questions at it! Even this is futile Did we sit to hold thus a court of enquiry, calling one thought after another! Is this the sadhana of diving within! Therefore, we should not remain watching ‘What is the next thought?’. Merely to keep on questioning in this manner is not Self-attention.
Concerning those who thus merely float on the surface of the thought-waves; keeping their mind on these questions instead of diving within by attending to the existenceconsciousness with a keen mind, thereby controlling mind, breath and all the activities of the body and senses, Sri Bhagavan says:
“Compare him who asks himself ‘Who am I?’ and ‘From which place am I?’, though he himself exists all the while as Self, to a drunken man who prattles ‘Who am I?’ and ‘Where am I?’.” ‘Ekatma Panchakam’, verse 2
and further, He asks: “…How to attain that state wherein ‘I’ does not rise the state of egolessness (the great void or maha sunya) – unless (instead of floating like this) we seek the place whence ‘I’ rises? And unless we
attain that (egolessness), say, how to abide in the state of Self, where ‘We are That’ (soham)?” ‘Ulladhu Narpadhu’, versa 27
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Therefore, all that we are to practise is to be still (summa iruppadu) with the remembrance of the feeling ‘I’. It is only when there is a slackness of vigilance during Selfattention that thoughts, which are an indication of it, will rise.
In other words, if thoughts rise it means that our Selfattention is lost.
It is only as a contrivance to win back Selfattention from thought – attention that Sri Bhagavan advised us to ask, ’To whom do these thoughts appear?’
’ Since the answer ‘To me’ is only a dative form of ‘I’, it will easily remind us of the nominative form, the feeling ‘I’
’. However, if we question, ‘Who thinks these thoughts?’, since the nominative form, the feeling ‘I’, is obtained as an answer, will not Self-attention, which has been lost unnoticed, be regained directly?
This regaining of Self-attention is actually being Self (that is, remaining or abiding as Self)! Such ‘being’ alone is the correct sadhana; sadhana is not doing, but being!!
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Some complain, “When the very rising of the ego from sleep is so surreptitious as to elude our notice, how can we see whence it rises? It seems to be impossible!” That is true, because the mind’s effort of attention is absent in sleep, since the mind itself is not at all there! As ordinary people are not acquainted with the knowledge of their ‘being’ but only with the knowledge of their ‘doing’ (that is, the knowledge of their making efforts), for such people it is
impossible to know from sleep the rising of the ego from there. Since the effort considered by them as necessary is absent in sleep, it is no wonder that they are unable to commence the enquiry from sleep itself! But, since the whole of the waking state is a mere sportive play of the ego and since the effort of the mind here is under the experience of everyone, at least in the waking state one can turn and attend to the pseudo ‘I’ shining in the form ‘I am so-and-so’.
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“What our Lord Ramana firmly advises us to take to, as the greatest and most powerful tapas is only this much, ‘Be still’ (summa iru), and not anything (dhyana, yoga and so on) as the duty to be performed by the mind.” ‘Guru Vachaka Kovai’ verse 773
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......impossible to know from sleep the rising of the ego from there. Since the effort considered by them as necessary is absent in sleep, it is no wonder that they are unable to commence the enquiry from sleep itself! But, since the whole of the waking state is a mere sportive play of the ego and since the effort of the mind here is under the experience of everyone, at least in the waking state one can turn and attend to the pseudo ‘I’ shining in the form ‘I am so-and-so’
“ ‘Turning inwards, daily see thyself with an Introverted look and it (the Reality) will be known’ – thus didst Thou tell me, O my Arunachala!” ‘Sri Arunachala Aksharamanamalai’, verse 44
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The enquiry begins only during the leisure hours of the waking state when one sits for practice. Just as a thing comes to our memory when its name, is thought of, does not the first person feeling come to everyone’s memory as soon as the name (pronoun) ‘I’ is thought of? Although this first person feeling is only the ego, the pseudo ‘I’- consciousness, it does not matter. Having our attention withdrawn from second and third persons and clinging to the first person – that alone is sadhana.
As soon as the attention turns towards the first person feeling, not only do other thoughts disappear, but also the first thought, the rising and expanding pseudo ‘I’-consciousness, itself begins contracting !
“When the mind, the ego, which wanders outside knowing only other objects (second and third persons), begins to attend to its own nature, all other objects will’ disappear and, by experiencing its true nature (Self), the pseudo ‘I’ will also die.” ‘Guru Vachaka Kovai’, verse 193
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“...If the fickle mind turns towards the first person, the first person (the ego) will become non-existent and That which really exists will then shine forth…” ‘Atma Vichara Patikam’, verse 6
“...Attending to the first person is equal to committing suicide...” ‘Atma Vichara Patikam’, verse 7
This is the great revelation made by Bhagavan Sri Ramana and bestowed by Him as a priceless boon upon the world of spiritual aspirants in order to bring Vedanta easily under practical experience.
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Just as a rubber ball72 gains greater and greater momentum while bouncing down the staircase, the more the concentration in clinging to the first person consciousness is intensified the faster is the contraction of the first thought (the ego), till finally it merges in its source. That which now merges thus is only the adjunct (upadhi), the feeling ‘so-and-so’ which, at the moment of waking, came and mixed with the pure existence-consciousness, which was shining in sleep as ‘I am’, to constitute the form of the ego, ‘I am so-and-so’, ‘I am this’ or ‘I am that’. That is, what has come and mixed now slips away. All that an
aspirant can experience in the beginning of his practice is only the slipping away (subsidence) of the ego. Since the
aspirant tracks down the ego from the waking state, where it is in full play, in the beginning it is possible for him to cognize only its removal. But to cognize its rising (how it rises and holds on to ‘I am’) from sleep will be more difficult for him at this stage
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rubber ball simile
The simile of the rubber ball: Let us suppose that a rubber ball is bouncing down from the top of a staircase, the steps of which are one foot high, After falling on to the second step, if it bounces to a height of half a foot, will it not now fall on to the third step from a height of one-and-a-half feet? It will then bounce to a height of three-quarters of a foot. Hence, the height from which it falls on to the next step will be one-and-three-quarter feet. Does it not thus gain greater and greater momentum? Likewise, the shrinking of the first thought, ‘I’, gains greater and greater momentum till finally it merges in its source.
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When Self-attention is started from the waking consciousness ‘I am so-and-so’, since it is only the adjunct, the feeling ‘so-and-so’, that slips away (because it is merely non-existent, an unreal thing [the unreal dies and the Reality alone survives, ‘satyameva jayate’), the aspirant even now (when ‘so-and-so’ has dropped off) feels no loss to the consciousness ‘I am’ which he had experienced in the waking state. Now he attains a state which is similar to the sleep he has experienced every day and which is devoid of
all and everything (because, ‘The ego is verily all – sarvam’73, since the whole universe, which is nothing but thoughts, is an expansion of the ego). But a great difference is now experienced by him between the sleep that, without his knowledge, has been coming and overwhelming him all these days due to the complete exhaustion of mind and body, and this sleep which is now voluntarily brought on and experienced by him with the full consciousness of the waking state. How?
“Because there is consciousness, this is not sleep, and because there is the absence of thoughts, it is not the waking state it is therefore the existenceconsciousness (sat-chit), the unbroken nature of Siva (akhanda siva-swarupam). Without leaving it, abide in it with great love.” ‘Sadhanai Saram’
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Whenever the aspirant during the time of sadhana becomes extroverted from this voluntarily brought-about sleep-like state, he feels absolutely certain, ‘I was not sleeping, but was all the while fully conscious of myself’.
But, though his real aspect (existence-consciousness) is ever knowing without he least doubt its own existence in sleep as ‘I am’, whenever he becomes extroverted from everyday sleep, since he (the mind) did not even once have the experience of continuing to know ‘I am’ from the waking state, he can only say, ‘I slept, I did not know myself at that time’, The truth is this: since the state of his Self-existence, devoid of the adjunct ‘so-and-so’, is traced out and caught hold of in the voluntarily brought-about sleep with the full consciousness (prajna) continuing from the waking state, the knowledge that the pure existence-consciousness (sat-chit} knows itself as ‘I am’ is clear in this sleep state. That is why
the aspirant now says, ‘I did exist throughout, I did not sleep’ ! But prior to his sadhana, since he was throughout the waking state identifying as ‘I’ the mind, which is the form of the adjunct ‘so-and-so’, after waking up from the ordinary daily sleep, where the mind did not exist, this mind (the man) says, ‘I did not exist in sleep’! That is all !!
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Those who experience many times this removal of the ego through practice, since they have an acquaintance with the experience of their pure existence-consciousness as ‘I am’ even after the removal of the ego,
can minutely cognize,
even at the moment of just waking up from sleep, how the adjunct ‘so-and-so’ comes and mixes.
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Those who do not have such strength of practice cannot cognize, from sleep itself, the ego at its place of rising
The only thing that is easy for them is to find the ego’s place of setting (which is also its place of rising) through the effort started from the waking state.
In either case, the end and the achievement will be the same.
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When the attention is focused deeper and deeper within towards the feeling ‘I am’ and when the ego thereby shrinks more and more into nothingness, our power of attention becomes subtler than the subtlest atom and thereby grows sharper and brighter.
Hence, the strength of abidance (nishtha-bala) will now be achieved to remain balanced between two states, that is, in a state after the end of sleep and before waking up, in other words, before being possessed by the first thought.
Through this strength, the skill will now be gained by the aspirant to find out the adjunct ‘so and so’, which comes and mixes, to be a mere second person (that is, although it has hitherto been appearing as if it were the first person, it will now be clearly seen to be his mere shadow, non-Self, the primal sheath, a thing alien to him).
This is what Janaka, the royal Sage, meant when he said, “I have found out the thief (the time of his coming – the time and place. of the ego’s rising) who has been ruining me all along; I will inflict the right punishment upon him”.
Since the ego, which was acting till now as if it were the first person, is found to be a second person alien to us, the right punishment is to destroy it at its very place of rising (just as the reflected ray is destroyed at its place of rising) by clinging steadfastly to the real first person (the real import of the word ‘I’), existenceconsciousness, through the method of regaining Selfattention taught by Bhagavan Sri Ramana (‘To whom? To me; who am I?’),
“As you practise more and more abiding in this existence-consciousness (that is, remaining in the state between sleep and waking), the ordinary sleep which had previously been taking possession of you will melt away, and the waking which was full of sense-knowledges (vishayas) will not creep
in again, Therefore repeatedly and untiringly abide in it,” ‘Sadhanai Saram’
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By greater and more steadfast practice of abiding in this existence-consciousness, we will experience that this state seems to come often and take possession of us of its own accord whenever we are free from our daily work. But, since this state of existence-consciousness is in fact nothing but ‘we’, it is wrong to think that such a state comes and takes possession of us!
While at work, we attend to other things; after that work is over and before we attend to some other second or third person, we naturally abide in our real state, existence-consciousness. Though this happens to one and all every day, it is only to those who have the experience of Self-consciousness through the aforesaid practice that the state of Self-abidance will be clearly discerned after leaving one second parson thought and before catching another one (that is, between two thoughts).
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“Why has it been said (in the above two verses of ‘Sadhana Saram’) that one ought to make effort repeatedly to be in that state (our existenceconsciousness) and ought to abide in it with more and more love? Because, until all the tendencies (vasanas) which drive one out of it are completely exhausted, this state will seem to come and go75. Hence the need for continued effort and love to abide in Self.”
“When, through this practice, our state of existence consciousness is experienced always as inescapably natural, then there will be no harm even if waking, dream and sleep pass across,” “For those who are well established in the unending Self-consciousness, which pervades and transcends all these three so-called states (waking, dream and sleep), there is but one state, the Whole, the All, and that alone is real! This state, which is devoid even of the feeling ‘I am making effort’, is your natural state of being! Be!!” ‘Sadhanai Saram’
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