Monday, February 11, 2008

the one infallible means

D: But is it not funny that the `I' should be searching for the `I'? Does not the enquiry, `Who am I?' turn out in the end an empty formula? Or, am I to put the question to myself endlessly, repeating it like some mantra?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Self-enquiry is certainly not an empty formula; it is more than the repetition of any mantra. If the enquiry, `Who am I?' were a mere mental questioning, it would not be of much value. The very purpose of Self-enquiry is to focus the entire mind at its source. It is not, therefore, a case of one `I' searching for another `I'.

Much less is Self-enquiry an empty formula, for it involves an intense activity of the entire mind to keep it steadily poised in pure Self-awareness.

Self-enquiry is the one infallible means, the only direct one, to realise the unconditioned, Absolute Being that you really are.

~ Maharshi's Gospel

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