Sri Pillai, a graduate in Philosophy, was at the time employed in the Revenue Department of the. The questions were put to Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi by one Sri M. 'Who am I' is the title given to a set of questions and answers bearing on Self-enquiry. We can see that I-I (and the variants of this such as ‘I am that I am’, etc) simply refer to the Self, that is consciousness without any objects, as per the quote on page 133. Who am I: the teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi by Ramana Maharshi and M. It is our ‘being’ (that is, our true existence)īut as we have already said, it is to be understood that the consciousness mixed with adjuncts as ‘I am this’ or ‘I am that’ is the ego (ahankara) or the individual soul (jiva), whereas the unalloyed consciousness devoid of adjuncts and shining alone as ‘I-I’ (or ‘I am that I am’) is Self (atman), the Absolute (brahman) or God (iswara). But the consciousness which shines alone as ‘I-I’ without any adjunct is Self (atman) or the Absolute (brahman). Of all thoughts, this thought is the first. The consciousness ‘I am’ when felt along with an adjunct (upadhi) as ‘I am so-and-so’ becomes a thought. In the Path of Sri Ramana Part One it states on p.114: This is because in most Indian languages ‘I’ and ‘I am’ are essentially the same word. ‘I-I’ means ‘I am I’ or ‘I am that I am’. It means to turn away from objects towards the Self the mantra ‘I-I’ just being a means to point your attention Selfwards.
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Or again, even if one merely continuously repeats to oneself inwardly ‘I-I’ with the entire mind fixed thereon, that also leads one to the same source.’ If one enquires whence the ‘I’ thought in the body arises in the first instance, it will be found that it is from hrdayam or the Heart. That which arises in the physical body as ‘I’ is the mind.
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GVK 186: Poor seer, who suffers endlessly because you still perceive the object, not. It is this mind that is otherwise called the subtle body, ego, jiva or soul. Here are the quotes they are taken from Guru Vachaka Kovai (GVK), a text that is considered to be one of the most authoritative records of Sri Ramana Maharshi’s verbal teachings, and also from ‘Who am I’, a text that Sri Ramana wrote himself that clearly describes the path to Liberation (Moksha). Mind has necessarily to depend for its existence on something gross it never subsists by itself. But he insisted on self-inquiry as it is the direct approach to.
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He was never against any of the other approaches. Ramana Maharshi used to appreciate all the paths and practices. He stressed upon knowing the real I behind all the functions and operations in the world. ‘By a steady and continuous investigation into the nature of the mind, the mind is transformed into That to which the ‘I’ refers and that is in fact the Self. Ramana Maharshi’s message was to observe the silence and self-inquiry. Please can you explain what is meant by the last line in this quote from ‘Who am I?’ by Sri Ramana Maharshi?