The pure mind is itself Brahman; therefore it follows that Brahman is not other than the mind of the sage.

Ramana Maharshi:  The ‘I’ concept is the ego. I-illumination is the Realisation of the Real Self. It is ever shining forth as ‘I-I’ in the intellectual sheath. It is pure Knowledge; relative knowledge is only a concept. The bliss of the blissful sheath is also but a concept. Unless there is the experience, however subtle it is, one cannot say “I slept happily”. From his intellect he speaks of his blissful sheath. The bliss of sleep is but a concept to the person, the same as intellect. However, the concept of experience is exceedingly subtle in sleep. Experience is not possible without simultaneous knowledge of it (i.e. relative knowledge). The inherent nature of the Self is Bliss. Some kind of knowledge has to be admitted, even in the realisation of Supreme Bliss. It may be said to be subtler than the subtlest. The word vijnana (clear knowledge) is used both to denote the Realisation of the Self and knowing the objects. The Self is wisdom. It functions in two ways. When associated with the ego the knowledge is objective (vijnana). When divested of the ego and the Universal Self is realised, it is also called vijnana. The word raises a mental concept. Therefore we say that the Self-Realised Sage knows by his mind, but his mind is pure. Again we say that the vibrating mind is impure and the placid mind is pure. The pure mind is itself Brahman; therefore it follows that Brahman is not other than the mind of the sage.
The Mundaka Upanishad says: “The knower of Brahman becomes the Self of Brahman.” Is it not ludicrous? To know Him and become Him? They are mere words. The sage is Brahman - that is all. Mental functioning is necessary to communicate his experience. He is said to be contemplating the unbroken expanse. The Creator, Suka and others are also said never to swerve from such contemplation. - Tejo Bindu Upanishad. 1 - 47. Such ‘contemplation’ is again a mere word. How is that to be contemplated unless it is divided (into the contemplator and the contemplated). When undivided, how is contemplation possible? What function can Infinity have? Do we say that a river after its discharge into the ocean has become an ocean-like river? Why should we then speak of contemplation which has become unbroken, as being that of unbroken Infinity? The statement must be understood in the spirit in which it is made. It signifies the merging into the Infinite. Self-Illumination or Self-Realisation is similar to it. The Self is ever shining. What does this ‘I-illumination’ mean then? The expression is an implied admission of mind function. The gods and the sages experience the Infinite continuously and eternally, without their vision being obscured at any moment. Their minds are surmised by the spectators to function; but in fact they do not. Such surmise is due to the sense of individuality in those who draw inferences. There is no mental function in the absence of individuality. Individuality and mind functions are co-existent. The one cannot remain without the other. The light of the Self can be experienced only in the intellectual sheath. Therefore vijnana of whatever kind (of object or of the Self) depends on the Self being Pure Knowledge.

Since the experience is through the mind only it appears first as a blaze of light. The mental predispositions are not yet destroyed

Mr. Cohen desired an explanation of the term “blazing light” used by Paul Brunton in the last chapter of A Search in Secret India.


Ramana Maharshi:  Since the experience is through the mind only it appears first as a blaze of light. The mental predispositions are not yet destroyed. The mind is however functioning in its infinite capacity in this experience. As for nirvikalpa samadhi i.e., samadhi, of non-differentiation (undifferentiated, supreme, beatific repose), it consists of pure consciousness, which is capable of illumining knowledge or ignorance; it is also beyond light or darkness. That it is not darkness is certain; can it be however said to be not light? At present objects are perceived only in light. Is it wrong to say that realisation of one’s Self requires a light? Here light would mean the consciousness which reveals as the Self only. The yogis are said to see photisms of colours and lights preliminary to Self-Realisation by the practice of yoga. Once before Goddess Parvati practised austerities for realising the Supreme. She saw some kinds of light. She rejected them because they emanated from the Self, leaving the Self as it was ever before. She determined that they were not supreme. She continued Her austerities and experienced a limitless light. She determined that this also was only a phenomenon and not the Supreme Reality. Still she continued Her austerities until she gained transcendental peace. She realised that it was Supreme, that the Self was the sole Reality. The Taittiriya Upanishad says, “Seek Brahman through penance”. Later on, “Penance is Brahman”. Another Upanishad says, “Itself is penance which is again made up of wisdom alone”. “There the sun shines not, nor the moon, nor the stars, nor fire; all these shine forth by Its light”.

The Jnani is not aware of anything besides the Self. He has no doubts of the kind.

Devotee:  Janaka was a Jnani and still he ruled his dominions. Does not action require activity of the mind? What is the rationale of the working of a jnani’s mind?


Ramana Maharishi:  You say, “Janaka was a Jnani and yet active, etc.” Does Janaka ask the question? The question is in your mind only. The Jnani is not aware of anything besides the Self. He has no doubts of the kind.


Devotee:  Probably it is like a dream. Just as we speak of our dreams, so they think of their actions.


Ramana Maharishi:  Even the dream, etc. is in your mind. This explanation too is in your mind only.


Devotee:  Yes. I see. All is Ramana-Maya - made up of the Self.


Ramana Maharishi:  If so, there will be no duality and no talk.


Devotee:  A man, on realising the Self, can help the world more effectively. Is it not so?


Ramana Maharishi:  If the world be apart from the Self.

What is it that exists now and troubles you? It is ‘I’. Get rid of it and be happy.

Devotee:  Can this physical body be made to disappear into nothingness?


Ramana Maharishi:  Why this question? Can you not find out if you are the body?


Devotee:  Can we have disappearance from sight (antardhana) like the yogis Vasishta or Viswamitra?


Ramana Maharishi:  These are only physical matters. Is that the essential object of our interest? Are you not the Self? Why trouble about other matters? Take the essence; reject other learned theories as useless. They who think that physical disappearance counts in freedom are mistaken. No such thing is needed. You are not the body; what does it matter if it disappears in one way or another? There is no great merit in such phenomena. In what does superiority or inferiority consist? Achievement of the Real alone matters. The loss of the ‘I’ is the main fact, and not the loss of the body. Identity of the Self with the body is the real bondage. Leave off the false notion and perceive intuitively the Real. That alone matters. If you melt a gold ornament before testing it to be gold, what matters it how it is melted, whole or in parts, or of what shape the ornament was? All that you are interested in is if it is gold. The dead man sees not his body. It is the survivor that thinks about the manner in which the body is parted from. The realised have no death with or without the body, the realised man is equally aware and sees no difference. To him the one state is not superior to the other. To an outsider also the fortunes of a liberated one’s body need not be of any concern; mind your business. Realise the Self; after realisation there will be time to think of what form of death is preferable to you. It is the false identity of the Self with the body that causes the idea of preference, etc. Are you the body? Were you aware of it when you were fast asleep last night? No! What is it that exists now and troubles you? It is ‘I’. Get rid of it and be happy.

The saints Sri Chaitanya and Sri Ramakrishna wept before God and achieved success. Is that not the path to follow?

Devotee:  The saints Sri Chaitanya and Sri Ramakrishna wept before God and achieved success. Is that not the path to follow?


Ramana Maharishi:  Yes. There was a powerful force (sakti) drawing them on through all those experiences. Trust in that huge power to take you on to your goal. Tears are often considered a sign of weakness. These great persons were certainly not weak. These manifestations are only passing signs of the great current carrying them on. We must look to the end achieved.

May we perform japa?

Devotee:  May we perform japa?

Ramana Maharishi:  Why should you think I am this? Investigate and the thoughts cease. What is, namely the Self, will be revealed as the inescapable residue.

See yourself, who sees these, and the problem is solved.

Devotee:  It is all right for those who believe in God. Others ask - Is there a God?


Ramana Maharishi:  Are you there?


Devotee:   Quite so. That is the question. I see before my eyes a battalion of sepoys passing. Therefore I am. The world must have been created by God. How shall I see the Creator?


Ramana Maharishi:  See yourself, who sees these, and the problem is solved.

Still over and over let his regain control, and poise it back in Self.

To explain vairagya Sri Bhagavan again quoted:
Sankalpaprabhavan kamams tyaktva sarvan aseshatah
Manasaivendriyagramam viniyamya samantatah — (Ch. VI, 24)
Having cast out without remains all longing born of thought for Self,
Having drawn in by mind alone his team of senses from all sides -


As for practice (abhyasa):
Sanaissanairuparamet buddhya dhritigrhitaya
Atmasamstham manah krtva na kinchidapi chintayet — (VI - 25)By slow approaches let him come to rest, with patient, rock-poised Will;
His mind at home in Selfhood pure, Let him create no thought at all


Again for jnana:
Yato yato nischarati manas chanchalam asthiram
Tatastato niyamyaitad atmanyeva vasam nayet — (VI - 26)Though over and over the fickle mind, all restlessness, a-wandering goes,
Still over and over let his regain control, and poise it back in Self.

For a realised man, the one who remains ever in the Self, the loss of one or several or all lives either in this world or in all the three worlds makes no difference

Devotee:  Loss of lives is wrong anyway. Are wars justified?


Ramana Maharishi:  For a realised man, the one who remains ever in the Self, the loss of one or several or all lives either in this world or in all the three worlds makes no difference. Even if he happens to destroy them all, no sin can touch such a pure soul. Maharshi quoted the Gita, Chapter 18, Verse 17 - “He who is free from the notion of ego, whose intellect is unattached, though he annihilates all the worlds, he slayeth not, nor is he bound by the results of his actions.”

You are neither That nor This. The truth is ‘I am’. “I AM that I AM”

Devotee:  Why do we not then know it?


Another Devotee:  I should always try to think I am That.


Ramana Maharishi:  Why should one think “I am That”? He is That only. Does a man go on thinking that he is a man?


Devotee:  The belief ‘I am a man’ is so deep that we cannot help thinking so.


Ramana Maharishi:  Why should you think “I am a man”? If you are challenged you may say ‘I am a man’. Therefore the thought - ‘I am a man’ - is called up when another thought, say ‘I am an animal’, protrudes itself. Similarly, the thought I am That is necessary only so long as the other thought I am a man persists.


Devotee:  The thought ‘I am a man’ is so firm that it cannot he got rid of.


Ramana Maharishi:  Be your true Self. Why should you think ‘I am a man’?


Devotee:  The thought ‘I am a man’ is so natural.


Ramana Maharishi:  Not so. On the other hand ‘I am’ is natural. Why do you qualify it with ‘a man’?


Devotee:  ‘I am a man’ is so obvious whereas ‘I am That’ is not understood by us.


Ramana Maharishi:  You are neither That nor This. The truth is ‘I am’. “I AM that I AM” according to the Bible also. Mere Being is alone natural. To limit it to ‘being a man’ is uncalled for.


Devotee:  (Humorously) If votes be taken the majority will be on my side. (Laughter)


Ramana Maharishi:  I cast my vote also on your side (Laughter). I say also ‘I am a man’: but I am not limited to the body. It is IN ME. That is the difference.


Devotee:  The limitation (upadhi) of being a man cannot be got rid of.


Ramana Maharishi:  How were you in deep sleep? There was no thought of being a man.

A thing remains to be attained if it is not already attained. But here one’s very being is That.

Devotee:  When we attempt to cease from activity the very attempt is action. So activity seems to be inevitable.


Ramana Maharishi:  True. Thayumanavar has also alluded to it. A doctor advises a patient to take the prescribed medicine with only one condition. That condition is not to think of a monkey when he takes the medicine. Can the patient ever take the medicine? Will he not think of the monkey whenever he tries not to do so? So also, when people try to give up thoughts their object is frustrated by their very attempt.


Devotee:   How then is the state to be attained?


Ramana Maharishi:   What is there to attain? A thing remains to be attained if it is not already attained. But here one’s very being is That.

He who instructs an ardent seeker to do this or that is not a true master

Devotee:  Our grasp is only intellectual. If Sri Bhagavan be pleased to direct us with a few instructions we shall be highly benefited.


Ramana Maharishi:  He who instructs an ardent seeker to do this or that is not a true master. The seeker is already afflicted by his activities and wants Peace and Rest. In other words he wants cessation of his activities. Instead of that he is told to do something in addition to, or in place of, his other activities. Can that be a help to the seeker? Activity is creation;  activity is the destruction of one’s inherent happiness. If activity be advocated the adviser is not a master but the killer. Either the Creator (Brahma) or Death (Yama) may be said to have come in the guise of such a master. He cannot liberate the aspirant but strengthens his fetters.

Realise your existence and then enquire of your duties.

Devotee:  I want to know my tattva and my duties.

Ramana Maharishi:  Know your tattva first and then you may ask what your duties are. You must exist in order to know and do your duty. Realise your existence and then enquire of your duties.

One should act in such a manner that the bondage is not strengthened but gets weakened.

Devotee:  Actions are bondage. One cannot remain without some kind of activity. So bondage goes on increasing. What is one to do under the circumstances?

Ramana Maharishi:  One should act in such a manner that the bondage is not strengthened but gets weakened. That is selfless action.

Whether you recognise the Power or not the scheme of things does not alter.

Ramana Maharishi:  Only so long as you think that you are the worker you are obliged to reap the fruits of your actions. If on the other hand, you surrender yourself and recognize your individual self as only a tool of the Higher Power, that Power will take over your affairs along with the fruits of actions. You are no longer affected by them and the work goes on unhampered. Whether you recognise the Power or not the scheme of things does not alter. Only there is a change of outlook. Why should you bear your load on the head when you are travelling on a train? It carries you and your load whether the load is on your head or on the floor of the train. You are not lessening the burden of the train by keeping it on your head but only straining yourself unnecessarily. Similar is the sense of doership in the world by the individuals.

The Self is always there in vyavahara (activity) or in shanti (peace).

Ramana Maharishi:  Samadhi is present even in vyavaharadasa (practical life). Our activities (vyavahara) have no existence apart from samadhi. The screen is there when the pictures move past on it and also when they are not projected. Similarly, the Self is always there in vyavahara (activity) or in shanti (peace).

How can I do my duties without attachment?

Devotee:  How can I do my duties without attachment? There is my wife, there are my children. I must do my duty towards them. Affection is necessary. Am I right?


Ramana Maharishi:  How do you do your work in the College?


Devotee:  (laughing) For wages.


Ramana Maharishi:  Not because you are attached, simply as doing your duty.


Devotee:  But my pupils expect me to love them.


Ramana Maharishi:  “Detachment in the interior and attachment in appearance,” says Yoga Vasishta.

The more you rectify your Karma (action), the more it accumulates. Find the root of Karma and cut it off.

Devotee:  The present experiences are the result of past Karma. If we know the mistakes committed in the past, we can rectify them.


Ramana Maharishi:  If one mistake is rectified there yet remains the whole sanchita  which is going to give you innumerable births. So that is not the procedure. The more you prune a plant, the more vigorously it grows. The more you rectify your Karma, the more it accumulates. Find the root of Karma and cut it off.

After realisation there will be no Karma, no world.

Devotee:  Does the Karma theory mean that the world is the result of action and reaction? If so, action and reaction of what?


Ramana Maharishi:  Until realisation there will be Karma, i.e., action and reaction; after realisation there will be no Karma, no world.

Give up this thought also and remain as your true Self.

Devotee:  I am a business man. How shall I get on with business and get peace of mind also?

Ramana Maharishi:  This is also a thought. Give up this thought also and remain as your true Self.

Devotee:  It is said: Do your duty without any expectation of results. How shall I get that frame of mind?

Ramana Maharishi:  You need not aspire for or get any new state. Get rid of your present thoughts, that is all.

Self is not concerned with actions and the question (of how the action will go on) does not arise.

Devotee:  If one remained quiet how is action to go on? Where is the place for karma yoga?


Ramana Maharishi:  Let us first understand what Karma is, whose Karma it is and who is the doer. Analysing them and enquiring into their truth, one is perforce obliged to remain as the Self in peace. Nevertheless the actions will go on.


Devotee:  How will the actions go on if I do not act?


Ramana Maharishi:  Who asks this question? Is it the Self or another? Is the Self concerned with actions?


Devotee:  No, not the Self. It is another, different from the Self.


Ramana Maharishi:  So it is plain that the Self is not concerned with actions and the question does not arise.


Devotee:  I agree.

The agent, remaining unaffected by the actions, gets more purified until he realises the Self.

Devotee:  The mind becomes aware of the world through the senses. When the senses are active, one cannot help feeling the existence of the world. How can karma yoga be of any use for pure awareness?


Ramana Maharishi:  The world is perceived by the mind through the senses. It is of the mind. The seer sees the mind and the senses as within the Self and not apart from it. The agent, remaining unaffected by the actions, gets more purified until he realises the Self.

Do not superimpose suffering on yourself

Devotee:  If God is all why does the individual suffer for his actions? Are not the actions prompted by Him for which the individual is made to suffer?

Ramana Maharishi:  He who thinks he is the doer is also the sufferer.


Devotee:  But the actions are prompted by God and the individual is only His tool.


Ramana Maharishi:  This logic is applied only when one suffers, but not when one rejoices. If the conviction prevails always, there will be no suffering either.


Devotee:  When will the suffering cease?


Ramana Maharishi:  Not until individuality is lost. If both the good and bad actions are His, why should you think that the enjoyment and suffering are alone yours? He who does good or bad, also enjoys pleasure or suffers pain. Leave it there and do not superimpose suffering on yourself.

Sleep, dream and waking are only modes passing before the Self. They proceed whether you are aware or not.

Devotee:  We have to deal with a physical body in a physical waking world. If we sleep while work is done or work when sleep overtakes us, the work will go wrong.

Ramana Maharishi:  Sleep is not ignorance; it is your pure state. Wakefulness is not knowledge; it is ignorance. There is full awareness in sleep; there is total ignorance in waking. Your real nature covers both, and extends beyond. The Self is beyond knowledge and ignorance. Sleep, dream and waking are only modes passing before the Self. They proceed whether you are aware or not. That is the state of the Jnani in whom pass the states of waking, samadhi, deep sleep and dream, like the bulls moving, standing or being unyoked when the passenger is asleep as aforesaid. These questions are from the point of view of the ajnani; otherwise these questions do not arise.

Imagine the actor (man) in the picture asking if he could enact a scene without the screen (Self).

Ramana Maharishi:   The Self comprises all. It is the screen, the pictures, the seer, the actor, the operator, the light and all else.  Your confounding it with the body and imagining yourself as the actor amounts to the seer being represented as an actor in a cinema picture. Imagine the actor in the picture asking if he could enact a scene without the screen. Such is the case of the man who thinks of his acting apart from the Self.

Self is the screen on which the pictures, namely activities, are going on.

Devotee:  The work may suffer if I do not attend to it.


Ramana Maharishi:  Because you identify yourself with the body, you consider that the work is done by you. But the body and its activities, including the work, are not apart from the Self.
What does it matter whether you attend to the work or not? Suppose you walk from one place to another place. You do not attend every single step that you take. After a time, however, you find yourself at your destination. You notice how the work, i.e., walking, goes on without your attention to it. Similarly it is with other kinds of work.



Devotee:   Then it is like sleep-walking.


Ramana Maharishi:  Quite so. When a child is fast asleep, his mother feeds him in sleep. The child eats the food quite as well as when well awake. But the next morning he says to the mother “Mother! I did not take food last night”. The mother and others know that he did. But he says that he did not. He was not aware and yet the action had gone on. Somnambulism is indeed a good analogy for this kind of work.
Take another example: A passenger in a cart has fallen asleep. The bulls move or stand still or are unyoked on the journey. He does not know these occurrences, but finds himself in a different place after he wakes up. He has been blissfully ignorant of the occurrences on the way, but his journey has been finished. Similarly with the Self of the person. He is asleep in the body. His waking state is the movement of the bulls, his samadhi is their standing still (because samadhi = jagrat sushupti) i.e., to say, he is aware of but not attached to actions. So the bulls are in harness but do not move. His sleep is the unyoking of the bulls, for there is complete suspension of activities corresponding to the release of the bulls from the yoke.
Still another example: Scenes are projected on the screen in a cinema show. But the moving pictures do not affect or alter the screen. The seer pays attention to the pictures and ignores the screen. They cannot remain apart from the screen. Still its existence is ignored. So also the Self is the screen on which the pictures, namely activities, are going on. The man is aware of the latter, ignoring the former. All the same he is not apart from the Self. Whether aware or unaware the actions will continue.

Attending to the Self includes attending to the work.

Devotee:  Bhagavan said yesterday that, while one is engaged in search for “God within”, outer work would go on automatically. In the life of Sri Chaitanya it is explained that while he sought Krishna (the Self) during his lectures to students, he forgot where his body was and went on talking of Krishna. This rouses doubt whether work can safely be left to itself. Should one keep part-attention on the physical work?


Ramana Maharishi:  The Self is all. Now I ask you: Are you apart from the Self? Can the work go on apart from the Self? Or is the body apart from the Self? None of them could be apart from the Self. The Self is universal. So all the actions will go on whether you engage in them voluntarily or not. The work will go on automatically. Attending to the Self includes attending to the work.

Can the atyasramis (most revered of all the ashramas) own property?

Devotee:  Can the atyasramis (most revered of all the ashramas) own property?


Ramana Maharishi:  There is no restriction for them. They may do what they please. Suka is said to have married and begotten children also.



Devotee:   The atyasrami is like a householder in that case.


Ramana Maharishi: I have already said that he is above the four recognised asramas.



Devotee:   If they can marry, own property, etc., they are only grihasthas.


Ramana Maharishi:  That may be your view.



Devotee:   Can they own property and convey the same to others?


Ramana Maharishi:  They may or may not. All depends on their prarabdha.



Devotee:   Is there any Karma for them?


Ramana Maharishi:   Their conduct is not regulated according to any rules or codes.

Make no effort either to work or to renounce work......You cannot renounce or hold as you choose.

Devotee:  My work demands the best part of my time and energy; often I am too tired to devote myself to Atma-chintana.


Ramana Maharishi:  The feeling “I work” is the hindrance. Enquire, “Who works?” Remember, “Who am I?” The work will not bind you. It will go on automatically. Make no effort either to work or to renounce work. Your effort is the bondage. What is bound to happen will happen. If you are destined to cease working, work cannot be had even if you hunt for it. If you are destined to work you cannot leave it; you will be forced to engage in it. So leave it to the Higher Power. You cannot renounce or hold as you choose.