the often misunderstood self-enquiry

That everything is in the mind and that the mind itself is only a passing phenomenon was continually stressed by Bhagavan.

"Who is the one behind the mind?" he would ask repeatedly. "Find that one and the mind itself will automatically disappear."

To do this one must repeatedly seek out the source of the "I" by the enquiry "Who am I?".

This process has often been misunderstood, though actually Bhagavan's teaching is quite clear. In this search one is not to seek for some transcendental "I-Absolute", but the ego itself and the point where it arises. Find this, [and] the ego automatically drops away and one then knows there is nothing but the Self.

It is like following a stream to its source through the hills, and when one has reached that point whence it arises the stream itself will no longer exist.

~ Sadhu Arunachala, A Sadhu's Reminiscences