The devotee, God and the Hymns are all the Self

Devotee:  I have been reading the Five Hymns. I find that the hymns are addressed to Arunachala by you. You are an Advaitin. How do you then address God as a separate Being?

Ramana Maharishi:  The devotee, God and the Hymns are all the Self.



Devotee:  But you are addressing God. You are specifying this Arunachala Hill as God.


Ramana Maharishi:  You can identify the Self with the body. Should not the devotee identify the Self with Arunachala?



Devotee:  If Arunachala be the Self why should it be specially picked out among so many other hills? God is everywhere. Why do you specify Him as Arunachala?


Ramana Maharishi:  What has attracted you from Allahabad to this place? What has attracted all these people around?



Devotee:  Sri Bhagavan.


Ramana Maharishi:  How was I attracted here? By Arunachala. The Power cannot be denied. Again Arunachala is within and not without. The Self is Arunachala.



Devotee:  Several terms are used in the holy books - Atman, Paramatman, Para, etc. What is the gradation in them?


Ramana Maharishi:  They mean the same to the user of the words. But they are understood differently by persons according to their development.



Devotee:  But why do they use so many words to mean the same thing?


Ramana Maharishi: It is according to circumstances. They all mean the Self. Para means ‘not relative’ or ‘beyond the relative’, that is to say, the Absolute.