Find out where from this ‘I’ arises. Then this ‘I’ will disappear and the infinite Self will remain. This ‘I’ is only the knot between the sentient and the insentient.

Ramana Maharishi:  You are now aware of the body. You were not aware of the body in deep sleep. Still you remained in sleep. After waking up you hold the body and say “I cannot realise the Self”. Did you say so in your sleep? Because you were undivided (akhanda) then, you did not say so. Now that you are contracted within the limits of the body you say “I have not realised”. Why do you limit your Self and then feel miserable? Be of your true nature and happy. You did not say ‘I’ in sleep. You say so now. Why? Because you hold to the body. Find out wherefrom this ‘I’ comes. Then the Self is realised. The body being insentient cannot say ‘I’. The Self being infinite cannot say ‘I’ either. Who then says ‘I’?

Devotee:  I do not yet understand. How to find the ‘I’?

Ramana Maharishi:  Find out where from this ‘I’ arises. Then this ‘I’ will disappear and the infinite Self will remain. This ‘I’ is only the knot between the sentient and the insentient. The body is not ‘I’,  the Self is not ‘I’. Who, then, is the ‘I’? Where from does it arise?

Devotee:  Where from does it arise?

Ramana Maharishi:  Find out.

Devotee:  I do not know. Please enlighten me.

Ramana Maharishi:  It is not from without. It is from within. Where does it come from? If
elsewhere you can be led there. Being within, you must find it out yourself.

Devotee:  From the head?

Ramana Maharishi:  Does the concept of ‘head’ arise after the ‘I’ or does ‘I’ arise from the head? If ‘I’ be in the head why do you bend it when sleep overpowers you? ‘I’ is ever constant. So also must its seat be. If the head bends at one time and is erect at another time how can it be the seat of ‘I’? Your head is laid flat in sleep. When awake it is raised up. Can it be the ‘I’?