Self-enquiry

I have selected the following verses from Guru Vachaka Kovai, the most authoritative text of Ramana Maharshi’s teachings. The text was written by his disciple Muruganar and thoroughly checked and amended by Ramana. Also present here are some comments from Sadhu Om and Michael James.

384 Giving up the attitude of outwardly enquiring more and more, “Who are you? Who is he?”, it is best to always inwardly enquire with great interest about oneself, “Who am I?”

385 If one attends to the centre of oneself with a keen mind to know “Who am I?”, the identification ‘I am the body’ will die and the Reality will shine forth as ‘I-I’. Then all the illusory differences, which are like the blueness seen in the sky, will disappear.

386 All doubts and questions pertaining to duality and otherness will be destroyed by the question “Who am I?” This question, “Who is this ‘I’ who doubts and asks about other things?”, will itself turn out to be the Brahmashtra, and will destroy the appearance of all otherness, which is nothing other than dark ignorance.

Michael James: The Brahmashtra is the greatest and most powerful Divine Weapon.

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389 Restraining the mind from going outside [through the senses], and fixing it always in its Source, Self, which is known as the Heart, so that the vain ‘I’-thought will not rise again, is the Atma-Vichara [Self-enquiry].

Sadhu Om: Refer to Who am I? where it is said, “… Always keeping the mind fixed in Self – that alone is Atma-Vichara …”

390 To know the Supreme Thing, which shines in the heart as Existence-Consciousness, it is useless to search for It [as God] outside with great enthusiasm, instead of slowly and steadily attending to It [as It is] by remaining in solitude. [To search for It outside is] just like trying to dive within the water with a naked lamp in one’s hand, in order to find a person who has drowned in a flood

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396 One’s unceasing effort to turn the mind – which is always extroverted due to the force of habit [cultivated in past births] – towards Self by the Self-enquiry “Who am I?” is [the significance of] the great war being fought between devas and asuras [which is described in the Puranas].

Sadhu Om: In India many stories are recorded in books known as the Puranas, which tell of the wars being fought between devas [gods] and asuras [demons]. These wars should not be regarded as mere myths or events that happened only in the distant past, they are going on even today. They are the constant battle which is always being fought in the life of a sadhaka between his liking to attend only to Self and the habitual outward-going tendencies of his mind.

397 Whenever a thought arises, instead of trying even a little either to follow it up or to fulfil it, it would be better to first enquire, “To whom did this thought arise?”

398 When one thus inwardly enquires, “Is it not to me that this thought has arisen – then who am I?”, the mind will return to subside in its Source, and the already risen thought will also vanish.

399 When one daily practices in this manner, since the impurities are being removed from the mind, it will become purer and purer to such an extent that the practice will become so easy that the mind will reach the Heart as soon as the enquiry is commenced.

400 Just as the creature which come out of the bushes to save their lives, being unable to bear with the heat of the wild forest-fire, are surely burnt to death, so all the vasanas hiding in the Heart will be destroyed, being unable to stand before the growing and blazing fire of the strength of Self-enquiry.

401 The thought “Who am I?”, after destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally die just like the stick which is used to stir the funeral pyre, and then the supreme Silence will prevail for ever.

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407 If the son of God, the jiva who has forgotten his real Nature [i.e. Self], eagerly enquires within, “Who am I that is lamenting over the miseries of life?’, he will realise his greatness, namely that he is truly One with his Father – Self.