Ramana Maharshi Quotes

Your own Self-Realization is the greatest service you can render the world.

Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it. What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside.

Wanting to reform the world without discovering one's true self is like trying to cover the world with leather to avoid the pain of walking on stones and thorns. It is much simpler to wear shoes.

Whatever is destined not to happen will not happen, try as you may. Whatever is destined to happen will happen, do what you may to prevent it. This is certain. The best course, therefore, is to remain silent.

You can only stop the flow of thoughts by refusing to have any interest in it.

Let what comes come. Let what goes go. Find out what remains.

There is neither creation nor destruction, neither destiny nor free will, neither path nor achievement. This is the final truth.

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 the words 'Be still'. What does stillness mean? It means destroy yourself. Because any form or shape is the cause for trouble. Give up the notion that 'I am so and so'. All that is required to realize the Self is to be still. What can be easier than that?

There is neither Past nor Future. There is only the Present.

If the mind falls asleep, awaken it. Then if it starts wandering, make it quiet. If you reach the state where there is neither sleep nor movement of mind, stay still in that, the natural (real) state.

All that is required to realise the Self is to “Be Still.

Realisation is not acquisition of anything new nor is it a new faculty. It is only removal of all camouflage

Eventually, all that one has learnt will have to be forgotten.

The greatest error of a man is to think that he is weak by nature, evil by nature. Every man is divine and strong in his real nature. What are weak and evil are his habits, his desires and thoughts, but not himself.

If you go on working with the light available, you will meet your Master, as he himself will be seeking you.

The only useful purpose of the present birth is to turn within and realize the Self.

No one succeeds without effort... Those who succeed owe their success to perseverance.

Everything in the world was my Guru.

When one remains without thinking one understands another by means of the universal language of silence.

Do what is right at a given moment and leave it behind

If you hold this feeling of ‘I’ long enough and strongly enough, the false ‘I’ will vanish leaving only the unbroken awareness of the real, immanent ‘I’, consciousness itself

Remain still, with the conviction that the Self shines as everything yet nothing, within, without, and everywhere.

Mind your business. Take care of what you came here for. Find the ‘I’ first and you may afterwards speak of other matters.

The highest goal of spirituality is Self-realization, but what does that mean? It means to feel your Self as a living reality in this moment, and there is always only this moment. (10)

Become conscious of being conscious. Say or think “I am”, and add nothing to it. Be aware of the stillness that follows the “I am”. Sense your presence, the naked unveiled, unclothed beingness. It is untouched by young or old, rich or poor, good or bad, or any other attributes. It is the spacious womb of all creation, all form.

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

It will come all right in the end.

The explorers seek happiness in finding curiosities, discovering new lands and undergoing risks in adventures. They are thrilling. But where is pleasure found? Only within. Pleasure is not to be sought in the external world.

Does a man who is acting on the stage in a female part forget that he is a man? Similarly, we too must play our parts on the stage of life, but we must not identify ourselves with those parts.

Complete surrender does require that you have no desire of your own, that God’s desire alone is your desire and that you have no desire of your own.

You are awareness. Awareness is another name for you. Since you are awareness there is no need to attain or cultivate it.

Time is only an idea. There is only the Reality Whatever you think it is, it looks like that. If you call it time, it is time. If you call it existence, it is existence, and so on. After calling it time, you divide it into days and nights, months, years, hours, minutes, etc. Time is immaterial for the Path of Knowledge. But some of these rules and discipline are good for beginners.

The revelation or intuition arises in its own time and one must wait for it.

The enquiry ‘Who am I?’ is the principal means to the removal of all misery and the attainment of the supreme bliss.

Know that the eradication of the identification with the body is charity, spiritual austerity and ritual sacrifice; it is virtue, divine union and devotion; it is heaven, wealth, peace and truth; it is grace; it is the state of divine silence; it is the deathless death; it is jnana, renunciation, final liberation and bliss.

The mind is by nature restless. Begin liberating it from its restlessness; give it peace; make it free from distractions; train it to look inward; make this a habit. This is done by ignoring the external world and removing the obstacles to peace of mind.

All are gurus to us, the wicked by their evil deeds say 'do not come near me'. the good are always good, therefore all are like gurus to us.

You are already that which you seek

Your concentration must come as easily as the breath. Fix yourself on one thing and try to hold onto it. All will come right. Meditation is sticking to one thought. That single thought keeps away other thoughts. The dissipated mind is a sign of its weakness. By constant meditation it gains strength.

The Power that created you has created the world as well. If it can take care of you, it can similarily take care of the world also. If God has created the world, it is His business to look after it, not yours.

What is illusion? M.: To whom is the illusion? Find it out. Then illusion will vanish. Generally people want to know about illusion and do not examine to whom it is. It is foolish. Illusion is outside and unknown. But the seeker is considered to be known and is inside. Find out what is immediate, intimate, instead of trying to find out what is distant and unknown.

The peace of mind which permeates the saint's atmosphere is the only means by which the seeker understands the greatness of the saint.

Real peace is happiness. Pleasures do not form happiness.

Grace is always present. You imagine it is something somewhere high in the sky, far away, and has to descend. It is really inside you, in your Heart, and the moment you effect subsidence or merger of the mind into its Source, grace rushes forth, sprouting as from a spring within you

when there is no ‘I’ there is no karma.

A day will dawn when you will laugh at your past efforts. What you realize on the day you laugh is also here and now

There is nothing like ‘within’ or ‘without.’ Both mean either the same thing or nothing.

Although the modes of meditation may appear to be different from one another, in the end all of them become one. There is no need to doubt this. One may adopt that path which suits the maturity of one’s mind.

If a person overlooks the faults of others, and sees only their merits, and thus keeps his mind serene, his whole life will be happy. To be unconcerned in all things, with the mind cool, free of desires and without hate, is beautiful in a seeker.

The question 'Who am I?' is not really meant to get an answer, the question 'Who am I?' is meant to dissolve the questioner.

To perform one's duty is the greatest service to God.

Whatever draws the mind outward is unspiritual and whatever draws the mind inward is spiritual

Controlling speech and breath, and diving deep within oneself — like one who, to find a thing that has fallen into water, dives deep down — one must seek out the source whence the aspiring ego springs.

The man who prays, the prayer, and the God to whom he prays all have reality only as manifestations of the Self.

The body is the temple; the jiva is God (Siva). If one worships him with the ‘I am He’ thought, one will gain release.

Let come what comes, Let go what goes, See what remains.

The ultimate Truth is so simple. It is nothing more than being in the pristine state. This is all that need be said. till, it is a wonder that to teach this simple Truth there should come into being so many religions, creeds, methods and disputes among them and so on! Oh the pity! Oh the pity!

The ego in its purity is experienced in intervals between two states or two thoughts. Ego is like that caterpillar which leaves its hold only after catching another. Its true nature can be found when it is out of contact with objects or thoughts.

People such as inventors searching for new material, make their discoveries in a state of self-forgetfulness. It is in a condition of deep intellectual concentration that this forgetfulness of the ego arises and the invention is revealed. This is also a way of developing intuition.

Peace is your natural state. It is your mind that destroys it.

When the mind that is subtle goes out through the brain and the sense-organs, the gross names and forms appear; when it stays in the Heart, the names and forms disappear.

As the activities of the wise man exist only in the eyes of others and not in his own, although he may be accomplishing immense tasks, he really does nothing.

I do not consider anyone to be my disciple. I have never sought upadesh from anyone nor do I give ceremonial upadesh. If the people call themselves my disciples I do not approve or disapprove.

That which is worth taking up is the self-enquiry that reveals jnana; that which is worth enjoying is the grandeur of the Self; that which is worth renouncing is the ego-mind; that in which it is worth taking refuge, to eliminate sorrow completely, is one’s own source, the Heart.

Solitude is in the mind of man. One might be in the thick of the world and maintain serenity of mind; such a one is in solitude. Another may stay in a forest, but still be unable to control his mind. He cannot be said to be in solitude. Solitude is a function of the mind. A man attached to desire cannot get solitude wherever he may be; a detached man is always in solitude.

The purpose of all these illustrations is to direct the seeker's mind towards the one Reality underlying them all.

D.: There are six centres in the body and there are corresponding centres in the world. M.: Yes. What is in the world is in the body; and what is in the body is in the world also.

Silence is also conversation.

He who has renounced (the ‘I-thought’) thus, remains the same whether he is alone or in the midst of the extensive samsara

One of two things must be done. Either surrender because you admit your inability and require a higher power to help you, or investigate the cause of misery by going to the source and merging into the Self. Either way you will be free from misery. God never forsakes one who has surrendered.

Be equally indifferent to both and abide in the faith of God. That will be so only when one’s faith is strong that God looks after all of us.

It is beyond words or thoughts.

One who knows the secret of that LOVE finds the world full of Universal Love

If the light of the sun is invisible to the owl it is only the fault of that bird and not of the sun.

What is said is given out to suit the temperament of the hearers

The reply comes as a current of awareness in the Heart, fitful at first and only achieved by intense effort, but gradually increasing in power and constancy, becoming more spontaneous, acting as a check on thoughts and actions, undermining the ego, until finally the ego disappears and the certitude of pure Consciousness remains.

42. The colour of milk is one, the colours of the cows many, So is the nature of knowledge, observe the wise ones. Beings of various marks and attributes, Are like the cows, their realisation is the same; This is an example we should know.

When the pot is carried, the space within the pot, Though conceived of as carried, Is it not the pot only that is carried? The Self too, like Space, remains motionless. 53. When the pot breaks, the space in the pot Merges one with the great Space. When the inert body passes away, the Self, seemingly in the body, Becomes immediately one with the Supreme Self.

Remaining quiet is what is called wisdom-insight. To remain quiet is to resolve the mind in the Self. Telepathy, knowing past, present and future happenings and clairvoyance do not constitute wisdom-insight.

Thoughts of bondage and of freedom last only as long as one feels, ‘I am bound’. When one enquires of oneself, ‘Who am I, the bound one?’ the Self, Eternal, ever free, remains. The thought of bondage goes; and with it goes the thought of freedom too.

Gods and goddesses, merits, demerits and their fruits, which are likewise anya (other than oneself), objects of attachment and the knowledge of those objects — all these will lead one to bondage in mighty samsara.

So long as they make efforts they will not be sages (jnanis).

What introverted mind calls peace, outside as power is shown; Those who have reached and found this truth, their unity have known.

Grace is ever present. The only thing necessary is that you surrender to it. (p. 369)

Reality must be always real. It is not with forms and names. That which underlies all these is the reality. It underlies limitations, being itself limitless. It is not bound. It underlies unrealities, itself being real. Reality is that which is. It is as it is. It transcends speech. It is beyond the expressions 'existence', 'non-existence' etc.

Giving up all notions about country, caste, blemishless community,asrama (status as a bachelor, family man, ascetic or one who has renounced the world) and associated matters, hold on to and practise always meditation upon the Self, your own natural state.

Finally there comes a stage when a person feels helpless notwithstanding the sadhanas. He is unable to pursue the much-cherished sadhana also. It is then that Gods power is realized. The self reveals itself.

While God sustains the burden of the world, the spurious ego assumes its burden, grimacing like an image on a tower, seeming to support it. If the traveller in a carriage, which can carry any weight, does not lay his luggage down but carries it painfully on his head, whose is the fault?

you must achieve liberation during your life time. Even if you fail to do it during your lifetime, you must think of god at least at the time of death, since one becomes what he thinks of at the time of death. But unless all your life you have been thinking of God, unless you have accustomed yourself to dhyana of 'God always during life, it would not at all be possible for you think of God at the time of death.

The fruition of this process is samadhi which yields release, which is the state of unsurpassed bliss. The revered Gurus also have said that release is to be gained only by devotion which is of the nature of reflection on the truth of the Self.

Self is only Being – not this or that. It is Simple Being. BE, and that is the end of ignorance. Your duty is not to be this or that. I am that I am sums up the whole truth. The method is summed up in the words Be still. Be as you really are. Be yourself and nothing more. Remain aware of yourself and all else will be known

How is breath control the means for mind control? M: There is no doubt that breath control is the means for mind control, because the mind, like breath, is a part of air, because the nature of mobility is common to both, because the place of origin is the same for both, and because when one of them is controlled the other gets controlled.

The beginningless Consciousness is unborn, whole and, residing forever in its natural home of the Heart-cave, is without form, world or impurity. It is beyond comparison and completely unattached. It cannot be comprehended by the mind nor can it be seen or felt by the senses.

A certain man from Madurai asked: How to know the Power of God?          M.: You say ‘I AM’. That is it. What else can say I AM?          One’s own being is His Power. The trouble arises only when one says, “I am this or that, such and such.” Do not do it - Be yourself. That is all.

In Hindu parlance he had 'realised the Self'; that is to say, he had realised by direct experience that nothing existed apart from an indivisible and universal consciousness which was experienced in its unmanifest form as beingness or awareness and in its manifest form as the appearance of the universe.

It is enough that one surrenders oneself. Surrender is to give oneself up to the original cause of one’s being. Do not delude yourself by imagining such a source to be some God outside you. One’s source is within oneself. Give yourself up to it. That means that you should seek the source and merge in it.

Both in Jnani and ajnani, ego is sprouting forth, but with this difference, namely the ajnani's ego when it rises up is quite ignorant of its source, or he is not aware of his sushupti in the dream and jagrat states; whereas a Jnani when his ego rises up enjoys his transcendental experience with this ego keeping his lakshya (aim) always on its source. This ego is not dangerous: it is like the skeleton of a burnt rope: in this form it is ineffective. By constantly keeping our aim on our source, our ego is dissolved in its source. like a doll of salt in the ocean.

Enlightened enquiry alone leads to liberation. Supernatural powers are all illusory appearances created by the power of maya (mayashakti). Self-realization which is permanent is the only true accomplishment (siddhi). Accomplishments which appear and disappear, being the effect of maya, cannot be real. They are accomplished with the object of enjoying fame, pleasures, etc. They come unsought to some persons through their karma. Know that union with Brahman is the real aim of all accomplishments. This is also the state of liberation (aikya mukti) known as union (sayujya).

When one adopts the practice (sadhana) by means of which one’smind, which is restless like the wind, is made still perpetually, then the purpose of taking birth as a human being is fulfilled. That is also the mark of a true scholar. 38. Do not practise meditation by fixing the mind on the six adhara chakras, the ones that are up or down or in the middle, or anywhere else. Giving up all such meditations, make the mind always devoid of any support (either inside or outside).

The Heart is used in the Vedas and the scriptures to denote the place whence the notion ‘I’ springs. Does it spring only from the fleshy ball? It springs within us somewhere right in the middle of our being. The ‘I’ has no location. Everything is the Self. There is nothing but that. So the Heart must be said to be the entire body of ourselves and of the entire universe, conceived as ‘I’. But to help the practiser we have to indicate a definite part of the Universe, or of the Body. So this Heart is pointed out as the seat of the Self. But in truth we are everywhere, we are all that is, and there is nothing else.