Ramana's Direct Path

All beings desire happiness always,
happiness without a tinge of sorrow.

To attain that natural happiness

one must know oneself.

For that, self-enquiry, ‘Who am I?’,  

is the chief means.

Happiness is the nature of the Self.

They are not different.

The only happiness there is,

is of the Self.

That is the truth.
There is no happiness in worldly objects.

Because of our ignorance

we imagine we derive happiness from them.

One must realize his Self 
in order to open the store 
of unalloyed happiness.

When unceasingly the mind

scans its own form,

there is nothing of the kind.

For everyone

this path direct is open.

Thoughts alone make up the mind;

and of all thoughts 

the ‘I’ thought is the root.

What is called mind

is but the notion ‘I’.

Seeing oneself free of all attributes

is to see the Lord,

for He shines ever as the pure Self.

For He shines ever as the pure Self ...

Everybody will go after 

only what gives happiness to him.

Thinking that happiness comes 

from some object or other,

you go after it.

See from whence all happiness,

including the happiness you regard 

as coming from sense objects,

really comes.

You will understand all happiness 

comes only from the Self,

and then you will always abide in the Self.

Pleasure and pain are aspects of the mind only.

Our essential nature is happiness.

But we have forgotten the Self

and imagine that the body or the mind is the Self.

It is that wrong identity that gives rise to misery.

What is to be done?

This mental tendency is very ancient

and has continued for innumerable past births.

Hence it has grown strong.

That must go before the essential nature,

happiness, asserts itself.

'No want' is the greatest bliss.

It can be realized only by experience.

Even an emperor is no match

for a man with no wants.

How shall I pray to God?

There must be 'I' who prays to God.

'I' is certainly immediate and intimate,

whereas God is not thought so.

Find out that which is more intimate

and then the other may be ascertained

and prayed to if necessary.

It is grace which makes you ask "Who am I?".

There is no answer to "Who am I?".

The asking is the answer.

Seek for the Self through meditation in this manner.

Trace every thought back to its origin,

which is only the mind.

Never allow thought to run on.

If you do, it will be unending.

Take thought back to its starting place 

-- the mind --

again and again,

and thought and the mind will both die of inaction.

The mind only exists by reason of thought.

Stop that and there is no mind.

As each doubt and depression arises,

ask yourself, 'Who is it that doubts?

What is it that is depressed?'

Go back constantly to the question,

'Who is the "I"? Where is it?'

Tear everything away 

until there is nothing

but the Source of all left.

And then --

live always in the present and only in it.

There is no past and future,

save in the mind.

For all thoughts

the source is the `I-thought'.

The mind will merge only by Self-enquiry 

`Who am I?'

The thought `Who am I?'

will destroy all other thoughts

and finally kill itself also.

If other thoughts arise,

without trying to complete them,

one must enquire

to whom did this thought arise?

What does it matter

how many thoughts arise?

As each thought arises

one must be watchful and ask

to whom is this thought occurring?

The answer will be `to me'.

If you enquire`Who am I?'

the mind will return to its source.

The thought which arose will also submerge.

As you practise like this more and more,

the power of the mind to remain at its source is increased.

However great a sinner one may be,

instead of lamenting

`I am a great sinner, how can I make any progress?'

one must completely forget the fact of being a sinner

and earnestly pursue meditation of Self.

He is then sure to succeed.

Controlling speech and breath,

and diving deep within oneself,

as a man dives into water

to recover something that has fallen there,

one must find out the source whence the ego rises,

by means of keen insight.

When we quest within our mind `Who am I?'

and reach the Heart,

`I' topples down

and immediately another entity will reveal itself

proclaiming `I-I'.

Even though it also emerges saying `I',

it does not connote the ego, 

but the One Perfect Existence.

All regard the unreal as real.

What is required

is that you give up regarding the unreal as real.

The object of all meditation or japa is only that,

to give up all thoughts regarding the non-self,

to give up many thoughts

and to hold on to one thought.

The object of all sadhana

is to make the mind one-pointed,

to concentrate it on one thought

and thus exclude our many thoughts.

If we do this,

eventually even the one thought will go

and the mind will get extinguished in its source.

When we enquire within `Who am I?'

the `I' investigated is the ego.

It is that which makes vichara also.

The Self has no vichara.

That which makes the enquiry is the ego.

The `I' about which the enquiry is made is also the ego.

As the result of the enquiry

the ego ceases to exist

and only the Self is found to exist.

Vichara is the process and the goal also.

‘I am’ is the goal and the final reality.

To hold to it with effort is vichara.

When spontaneous and natural, 

it is realisation.

If one leaves aside vichara,

the most efficacious sadhana,

there are no other adequate means whatever

to make the mind subside.

If made to subside by other means,

it will remain as if subsided but will rise again.

Self-enquiry is the one infallible means, 

the only direct one, 

to realise the unconditioned, absolute being 

that you really are.

Better than viewing Him as Other,

Indeed the noblest attitude of all,

Is to hold Him as the ‘I’ within,

The very ‘I’.

Whatever thoughts arise

as obstacles to one’s sadhana,

the mind should not be allowed

to go in their direction,

but should be made to rest in one’s Self

which is the Atman;

one should remain as witness

to whatever happens,

adopting the attitude

‘Let whatever strange things happen, happen;

let us see!’

This should be one’s practice.

In other words,

one should not identify oneself with appearances;

one should never relinquish one’s Self.

This is the proper means

for destruction of the mind

which is of the nature of seeing the body as Self,

and which is the cause of all the aforesaid obstacles.

The very purpose of Self-enquiry

 is to focus the entire mind at its source… 

it involves an intense activity of the entire mind

to keep it steadily poised

in pure Self-awareness.

That bliss of the Self

is always with you,

and you will find it for yourself,

if you would seek it earnestly.

The cause of your misery

is not in the life without;

it is in you as the ego.

You impose limitations on yourself

and then make a vain struggle to transcend them.

All unhappiness is due to the ego;

with it comes all your trouble.

What does it avail you

to attribute to the happenings in life

the cause of misery 

which is really within you?

What happiness can you get

from things extraneous to yourself?

When you get it, how long will it last?

If you would deny the ego 

and scorch it by ignoring it,

you would be free.

If you accept it,

it will impose limitations on you

and throw you into a vain struggle

to transcend them.

You should be capable 

of making use of even the dust,

while at the same time

you should also be ready

to reject the entire cosmos

as mere dust.

To be the Self that you really are

is the only means 

to realise the bliss that is ever yours.

Know then that true knowledge

does not create a new Being for you,

it only removes your `ignorant ignorance'.

Bliss is not added to your nature,

it is merely revealed as your true and natural state,

eternal and imperishable.

The only way to be rid of your grief

is to know and be the Self.

Know yourself

before you seek to decide

about the nature of God and the world.

Surrender itself is a mighty prayer.

God illumines the mind and shines within it. 

One cannot know God by means of the mind. 

One can but turn the mind inwards 

and merge it in God.

Abidance in pure being

transcending thought 

through love intense

is the very essence

of supreme devotion.

God is always the first person,

the I,

ever standing before you.

Because you give precedence to worldly things,

God appears to have receded to the background.

If you give up all else and seek Him alone

He alone will remain as the I, the Self.

There are no milestones in this path.

How can you be sure as to how far you have travelled?

Why don't you follow the first class passenger?

He informs the guard about his destination,

closes the door and sleeps soundly.

That is all that he need do.

The guard will wake him up at the correct station.

Even when extraneous thoughts sprout up

during such enquiry,

do not seek to complete the rising thought,

but instead, deeply enquire within,

'To whom has this thought occurred?'

No matter how many thoughts thus occur to you,

if you would with acute vigilance 

enquire immediately

as and when each individual thought arises

to whom it has occurred,

you would find it is to 'me'.

If then you enquire

'Who am I?'

the mind gets introverted

and the rising thought also subsides.

In this manner as you persevere more and more

in the practice of self-enquiry,

the mind acquires strength and power

to abide in its Source.

Self-enquiry dissolves the ego

by looking for it

and finding it to be non-existent,

whereas devotion surrenders it;

therefore both come to the same ego-free goal,

which is all that is required.

Your firm conviction brought you here, where is the room for doubt?

Who then is God?

The Self is God.

`I AM' is God.

If God be apart from the Self,

He must be a Selfless God,

which is absurd.

All that is required

to realise the Self

is to be still.

What can be easier than that?

When one enquires of oneself,

'Who am I, the bound one?'

the Self, Eternal, ever free, remains.

The fact is that the mind is only a bundle of thoughts.

How can you extinguish it 

by the thought of doing so or by a desire ...

Your mind is simply fattened by new thoughts rising up.

Therefore it is foolish to attempt to kill the mind

by means of the mind.

The only way to do it is to find its source

and hold on to it.

The Master is within.

Meditation is meant to remove the ignorant idea

that He is only outside.

If He be a stranger whom you await,

He is bound to disappear also.

Where is the use for a transient being like that?

But as long as you think you are separate

or that you are the body,

so long is the Master `without' also necessary,

and He will appear as if with a body.

When the wrong identification

of oneself with the body ceases,

the Master will be found

as none other than the Self.

Breath and mind arise from the same source 

and when one of them is controlled 

the other is also controlled. 

As a matter of fact, in the quest method 

— which is more correctly

`Whence am I?' 

and not merely `Who am I?' — 

we are not simply trying to eliminate, 

saying `We are not the body, 

nor the senses and so on', 

to reach what remains as the ultimate reality, 

but we are trying to find out 

whence the `I-thought' or

the ego arises within us.

The method contains within it,

though implicitly and not expressly,

the watching of the breath.

When we watch wherefrom the 'I-thought' arises,

we are necessarily watching the source of the breath also,

as the 'I-thought' and the breath

arise from the same source.

Simultaneously another luminous and infinite

'I-I' 

will emerge,

and it will be continuous and unbroken.

That is the goal.

It goes by different names --

God, Self,

Kundalini, Shakti,

Consciousness, etc.

Who am I is not a mantra.

It means that you must find out 

where in you the 'I-thought' arises,

which is the source of all other thoughts.

But if you find that the path of enquiry 

is too hard for you,

you go on repeating 'I-I'

and that will lead you to the same goal.

There is no harm in using 'I' as a mantra.

It is the first name of God.

First know who you are.

This requires no sastras or scholarship. 

This is simple experience. 

The state of being is now and here all along. 

You have lost hold of yourself 

and are asking others for guidance. 

Your business is to find the real nature of the mind.
Then you will know that there is no mind.
When the Self is sought,
the mind is nowhere.
Abiding in the Self,
one need not worry about the mind.

Hold yourself and the ego will vanish. 

Until then the sage will be happy saying, `There is', 

and the ignorant will be asking, `Where?'

What is destiny?

There is no destiny.
Surrender, and all will be well.

Throw all responsibility on God

and do not bear the burden yourself.

What can destiny do to you then?

Know and always hold onto the Self.
Disregard the body and the mind.
To identify with them is misery.

Your duty is to be
and not to be this or that.
'I am that I am' sums up the whole truth.
The method is summed up in 'Be still.'

And what does stillness mean?
It means `destroy yourself ';
because every name and form
is the cause of trouble.
`I-I' is the Self.
`I am this' is the ego.
When the `I' is kept up
as the `I' only,
it is the Self.
When it flies off at a tangent
and says `I am this or that,
I am such and such', it is the ego.

True love is shown by the certainty
that the object of love is in the Self
and that it can never become non-existent. 

Dive deep into the Heart,
the source of being and peace,
and establish yourself there.