You are originally unlimited and perfect. Later you take on limitations and become the mind.

Devotee:  What remains over cannot be ‘I’, but Pure Consciousness.

Ramana Maharishi:  Quite so. You start seeking happiness. On analysis you find that misery is caused by thoughts. They are called the mind. While trying to control the mind you seek the ‘I’ and get fixed in Being-Knowledge-Bliss.

Another devotee:  What then is the mind?

Ramana Maharishi:  Mind is consciousness which has put on limitations. You are originally unlimited and perfect. Later you take on limitations and become the mind.

Devotee:  It is avarana (veiling) then. How does this happen?

Ramana Maharishi:  To whom is the avarana? It is the same as avidya (ignorance), ego or the mind.

Devotee:  Avarana means obscuration. Who is obscured? How does it arise?

Ramana Maharishi:  The limitation is itself obscuration. No questions will arise if limitations are transcended.

How is the mind to dive into the Heart?

Devotee:  How is the mind to dive into the Heart?

Ramana Maharishi:  The mind now sees itself diversified as the universe. If the diversity is not manifest it remains in its own essence, that is the Heart. Entering the Heart means remaining without distractions. The Heart is the only Reality. The mind is only a transient phase. To remain as one’s Self is to enter the Heart.

When the nature to give away is developed it results in jnana.

Ramana Maharishi:  When ‘mine’ is given up it is chitta suddhi (purified mind). When ‘I’ is given up it is jnana. When the nature to give away is developed it results in jnana.

What is my tattva (truth)?

Devotee:  What is my tattva (truth)?

Ramana Maharishi:  You are yourself the tattva. Is there a different one to know the tattva of another? How can you exist apart from the tattva? The very fact of your existence makes you ask this question. Your very existence is the tattva. Give up the habiliments of the tattva and remain in your essential nature. All the Scriptures tell you only not to waste your efforts in non-truth - non-tattva. Give up the nontattva. Then tattva remains always shining pure and single.

What is Atma sakshatkara (Self-Realisation)?

Devotee:  What is Atma sakshatkara (Self-Realisation)?

Ramana Maharishi:  You are the Atma (Self) and that sakshat (here and now) also. Where is the place for kara (accomplishment) in it? This question shows that you think you are the non-Self. Or you think that there are two selves, the one to realise the other. It is absurd. That you identify yourself with the gross body lies at the root of this question. Well, this question arises now. Did it arise in your sleep? Did you not exist then? Certainly you did exist in sleep. What is the difference between these two states that the question should arise now but not in sleep? Now you think that you are the body. You see things around you and you want to see the Self in a similar manner. Such is the force of habit. The senses are mere instruments of perception. You are the seer. Remain as the seer only. What else is there to see? Such is the state in deep sleep. Therefore this question does not arise then. Atma sakshatkara (Self-Realisation) is thus only anatma nirasana (giving up the non-Self).

Can I have realisation even in the absence of sat sanga as necessitated by my circumstances?

Devotee:   My profession requires my stay in my place. I cannot remain in the vicinity of sadhus. Can I have realisation even in the absence of sat sanga as necessitated by my circumstances?

Ramana Maharishi:  Sat is aham pratyaya saram = the Self of selves. The sadhu is that Self of selves. He is immanent in all. Can anyone remain without the Self? No. So no one is away from sat sanga.

Love postulates duality. How can the Self be the object of love?

Ramana Maharishi: To infer one’s existence no other evidence is necessary. The indriyas (senses) and the mind arising from the ego cannot serve as evidence relating to the Self. The Self is their basis. They do not exist independently of the Self. One’s own existence is self-evident. Bliss is the Self. All become dear only owing to the love of Self.

Devotee: Love postulates duality. How can the Self be the object of love?

Ramana Maharishi:  Love is not different from the Self. Love of an object is of an inferior order and cannot endure. Whereas the Self is Love, in other words, God is Love.

Is it possible to gain that consciousness which is beyond thoughts?

Devotee:   I know that one can think, remaining forgetful of the physical body. Can one think without the mind? Is it possible to gain that consciousness which is beyond thoughts?

Ramana Maharishi:  Yes. There is only one consciousness, which subsists in the waking, dream and sleep states. In sleep there is no ‘I’. The ‘I-thought’ arises on waking and then the world appears. Where was this ‘I’ in sleep? Was it there or was it not? It must have been there also, but not in the way that you feel now. The present is only the ‘I-thought’, whereas the sleeping ‘I’ is the real ‘I’. It subsists all through. It is consciousness. If it is known you will see that it is beyond thoughts.

You can never find the mind through mind. Pass beyond it in order to find it non-existent.

Devotee:  It is so difficult to spot the mind. The same difficulty is shared by all.

Ramana Maharishi:  You can never find the mind through mind. Pass beyond it in order to find it non-existent.

Devotee: Then one must directly go to seek the ego. Is it so?

Ramana Maharishi:  That’s it. Mind, ego, intellect are all different names for one single inner organ (antahkarana). The mind is only the aggregate of thoughts. Thoughts cannot exist but for the ego. So all thoughts are pervaded by ego (aham). Seek where from the ‘I’ rises and the other thoughts will disappear.

How to get peace?

Devotee:  How to get peace?

Ramana Maharishi:  That is the natural state. The mind obstructs the innate peace. Our investigation is only in the mind. Investigate the mind; it will disappear. There is no entity by name mind. Because of the emergence of thoughts we surmise something from which they start. That we  term mind. When we probe to see what it is, there is nothing like it. After it has vanished, Peace will be found to remain eternal.

How to check the mind?

Devotee:  How to check the mind?

Ramana Maharishi:  Will a thief betray himself? Will the mind find itself? The mind cannot seek the mind. You have ignored what is real and are holding on to the mind which is unreal and also trying to find what it is. Was there mind in your sleep? It was not. It is now here. It is therefore impermanent. Can the mind be found by you? The mind is not you. You think you are the mind and therefore ask me how it is checked. If it is there it can be checked. But it is not. Understand this truth by search. Search for unreality is fruitless. Therefore seek the reality, i.e., the Self. That is the way to rule over the mind. There is only one thing Real!

How can the rebellious mind be brought under control?

Devoetee:  How can the rebellious mind be brought under control?

Ramana Maharishi:  Either seek its source so that it may disappear or surrender that it may be struck down.

Devoetee:  But the mind slips away from our control.

Ramana Maharishi:  Be it so. Do not think of it. When you recollect yourself bring it back and turn it inward. That is enough. No one succeeds without effort. Mind control is not one’s birthright.
The successful few owe their success to their perseverance. A passenger in a train keeps his load on the head by his own folly. Let him put it down: he will find the load reaches the destination all the same. Similarly, let us not pose as the doers, but resign ourselves to the guiding Power.

How can the world be an imagination or a thought?

Devotee:  How can the world be an imagination or a thought? Thought is a function of the mind. The mind is located in the brain. The brain is within the skull of a human being, who is only an infinitesimal part of the universe. How then can the universe be contained in the cells of the brain?

Ramana Maharishi:  So long as the mind is considered to be an entity of the kind described, the doubt will persist. But what is mind? Let us consider. The world is seen when the man wakes up from sleep. It comes after the ‘I-thought’. The head rises up. So the mind has become active. What is the world? It is objects spread out in space. Who comprehends it? The mind. Is not the mind, which comprehends space, itself space (akasa)? The space is physical ether (bhootakasa). The mind is mental ether (manakasa) which is contained in transcendental ether (chidakasa). The mind is thus the ether principle, akasa tattva. Being the principle of knowledge (jnana sattva), it is identified with ether (akasa) by metaphysics. Considering it to be ether (akasa), there will be no difficulty in reconciling the apparent contradiction in the question. Pure mind (suddha manas) is ether (akasa). The dynamic and dull (rajas and tamas) aspects operate as gross objects, etc. Thus the whole universe is only mental. Again, consider a man who dreams. He goes to sleep in a room with doors closed so that nothing can intrude on him while asleep. He closes his eyes when sleeping so that he does not see any object. Yet when he dreams he sees a whole region in which people live and move about with himself among them. Did this panorama get in through the doors? It was simply unfolded to him by his brain. Is it the sleeper’s brain or in the brain of the dream individual? It is in the sleeper’s brain. How does it hold this vast country in its tiny cells? This must explain the oft-repeated statement that the whole universe is a mere thought or a series of thoughts.

When you see them (objects) as Brahman they are real, deriving their reality from their substratum, Brahman.

Devotee:  All are said to be Brahman.

Ramana Maharishi:  Yes, they are. But so long as you think that they are apart they are to be avoided. If on the other hand they are found to be Self there is no need to say ‘all’. For all that exists is only Brahman. There is nothing besides Brahman.

Devotee:  Ribhu Gita speaks of so many objects as unreal, adding at the end that they are all Brahman and thus real.

Ramana Maharishi:  Yes. When you see them as so many they are asat, i.e., unreal. Whereas when you see them as Brahman they are real, deriving their reality from their substratum, Brahman.

Devotee:  Why then does Upadesa Sara speak of the body, etc., as jada i.e. insentient?

Ramana Maharishi:  Inasmuch as you say that they are body, etc., apart from the Self. But when the Self is found this body, etc., are also found to be in it. Afterwards no one will ask the question and no one will say that they are insentient.

Devotee:  Viveka is said to be discrimination between the Self and the nonself. What is the non-self?

Ramana Maharishi:  There is no non-self, in fact. The non-self also exists in the Self. It is the Self which speaks of the non-self because it has forgotten itself. Having lost hold of itself, it conceives something as non-self, which is after all nothing but itself.

What is contemplation? It is merging into the source consciously.

Ramana Maharishi:  We have become rooted in forms and so we require a concrete form for meditating upon. Only that which we contemplate will in the end remain over. When you contemplate the other thoughts disappear. So long as you need to contemplate there are other thoughts, Where are you? You contemplate because you exist. For the contemplator must contemplate. The contemplation can only be where he is. Contemplation wards off all other thoughts. You should merge yourself in the source. At times we merge in the source unconsciously, as in sleep, death, swoon, etc. What is contemplation? It is merging into the source consciously. Then the fear of death, of swoon, etc. will disappear, because you are able to merge into the source consciously. Why fear death? Death cannot mean non-being. Why do you love sleep, but not death? Do you not think now? Are you not existing now? Did you not exist in your sleep? Even a child says that it slept well and happily. It admits its existence in sleep, unconsciously though. So, consciousness is our true nature. We cannot remain unconscious. We however say that we were unconscious in our sleep because we refer to qualified consciousness. The world, the body, etc., are so embedded in us that this relative consciousness is taken to be the Self. Does anyone say in his sleep that he is unconscious? He says so now. This is the state of relative consciousness. Therefore he speaks of relative consciousness and not of abstract consciousness. The consciousness is beyond relative consciousness or unconsciousness. Again reverting to Tiruvachagam, Sri Bhagavan said: All the four foremost saints have given out their experiences in the very first stanza. (1) Undifferentiated worship. (2) Never-failing remembrance. (3) Unrisen thought. (4) The ego is not, the Self is. All mean the same.

Devotee:  But this truth is not realised.

Ramana Maharishi:  It will be realised in due course. Till then there is devotion (bhakti): “Even for a trice you do not leave my mind.” Does he leave you any moment? It is you who allow your mind to wander away. He remains always steady. When your mind is fixed, you say: “He does not leave my mind even for a trice”. How ridiculous!

There is the wrong notion that the body is apart and the Self is confounded with the body.

Devotee: What I want is realisation. I do not feel my inherent happy nature.

Ramana Maharishi:  Because the Self is now identified with the non-self. The non-self too is not apart from the Self. However, there is the wrong notion that the body is apart and the Self is confounded with the body. This wrong identity must be ended for happiness to manifest.

How to attain the Self?

Devotee:  How to attain the Self?

Ramana Maharishi:  Self is not to be attained because you are the Self.

Devotee:  Yes. There is an unchanging Self and a changing one in me. There are two selves.

Ramana Maharishi:  The changefulness is mere thought. All thoughts arise after the arising of the ‘I-thought’. See to whom the thoughts arise. Then you transcend them and they subside. This is to say, tracing the source of the ‘I-thought’, you realise the perfect ‘I-I’. ‘I’ is the name of the Self.

The Self does not move. The world moves in it.

Ramana Maharishi:  Where are you going? You are not going anywhere. Even supposing you are the body, has your body come from Lucknow to Tiruvannamalai? You had simply sat in the car and one conveyance or another had moved; and finally you say that you have come here. The fact is that you are not the body. The Self does not move. The world moves in it. You are only what you are. There is no change in you. So then even after what looks like departure from here, you are here and there and everywhere. These scenes shift. As for Grace - Grace is within you. If it is external it is useless. Grace is the Self. You are never out of its operation. Grace is always there.

How shall I reach the Self?

Devotee:  How shall I reach the Self?

Ramana Maharishi:  There is no reaching the Self. If the Self were to be reached, it would mean that the Self is not now and here, but that it should be got anew. What is got afresh, will also be lost. So it will be impermanent. What is not permanent is not worth striving for. So I say, the Self is not reached. You are the Self. You are already That. The fact is that you are ignorant of your blissful state. Ignorance supervenes and draws a veil over the pure Bliss. Attempts are directed only to remove this ignorance. This ignorance consists in wrong knowledge. The wrong knowledge consists in the false identification of the Self with the body, the mind, etc. This false identity must go and there remains the Self.

Devotee:  How is that to happen?

Ramana Maharishi:  By enquiry into the Self.

Devotee:  It is difficult. Can I realise the Self, Maharaj? Kindly tell me. It looks so difficult.

Ramana Maharishi:  You are already the Self. Therefore realisation is common to everyone. Realisation knows no difference in the aspirants. This very doubt, “Can I realise?” or the feeling, “I have not realised” are the obstacles. Be free from these also.

Devotee:  But there should be the experience. Unless I have the experience how can I be free from these afflicting thoughts?

Ramana Maharishi:  These are also in the mind. They are there because you have identified yourself with the body. If this false identity drops away, ignorance vanishes and Truth is revealed.

How shall I gain practical realisation of the Self?”

Devotee:  “I understand that the Self is beyond the ego. My knowledge is theoretical and not practical. How shall I gain practical realisation of the Self?”

Ramana Maharishi: Realisation is nothing to be got afresh. It is already there. All that is necessary is to be rid of the thought: “I have not realised.”

Devotee:  Then one need not attempt it.

Ramana Maharishi:   No. Stillness of mind or peace is realisation. There is no moment when the Self is not. So long as there is doubt or the feeling of non-realisation, attempt must be made to rid oneself of these thoughts. The thoughts are due to identification of the Self with the non-self.  When the non-self disappears the Self alone remains. To make room anywhere it is enough that things are removed from there. Room is not brought in afresh. Nay, more - room is there even in cramping. Absence of thoughts does not mean a blank. There must be one to know the blank. Knowledge and ignorance are of the mind. They are born of duality. But the Self is beyond knowledge and ignorance. It is light itself. There is no necessity to see the Self with another Self. There are no two selves. What is not Self is non-self. The non-self cannot see the Self. The Self has no sight or hearing. It lies beyond these - all alone, as pure consciousness. A woman, with her necklace round her neck, imagines that it has been lost and goes about searching for it, until she is reminded of it by a friend; she has created her own sense of loss, her own anxiety of search and then her own pleasure of recovery. Similarly the Self is all along there, whether you search for it or not. Again just as the woman feels as if the lost necklace has been regained, so also the removal of ignorance and the cessation of false identification reveal the Self which is always present - here and now. This is called realisation. It is not new. It amounts to elimination of ignorance and nothing more. Blankness is the evil result of searching the mind. The mind must be cut off, root and branch. See who the thinker is, who the seeker is. Abide as the thinker, the seeker. All thoughts will disappear.

Abandon the wrong identification of the Self with the non-self.

Devotee:  Yes. I realise myself.

Ramana Maharishi:  Myself. Are there two - my and self?

Devotee:  I do not mean it.

Ramana Maharishi:  Who is it that has or has not realised?

Devotee:  There is only one Self.

Ramana Maharishi:  The question can arise only if there be two. Abandon the wrong identification of the Self with the non-self.

What is reality?

Devotee:  What is reality?

Ramana Maharishi:  Reality must be always real. It is not with forms and names. That which underlies these is the Reality. It underlies limitations, being itself limitless. It is not bound. It underlies unrealities, itself being real. Reality is that which is. It is as it is. It transcends speech, beyond the expressions, e.g., existence, non-existence, etc.