Who Am I?

by Ramana Maharshi

To achieve this, the Path of Knowledge, the enquiry in the form of “Who am I?”, is the principal means.

7. When will the world which is the object seen be removed? When the mind, which is the cause of all cognition and of all actions, becomes quiescent, the world will disappear.

Apart from thoughts, there is no such thing as mind. Therefore, thought is the nature of mind.

Like the practice of breath control, meditation on the forms of God, repetition of mantras, restriction on food, etc., are but aids for rendering the mind quiescent.

Of all the restrictive rules, that relating to the taking of sattvic food in moderate quantities is the best; by observing this rule, the sattvic quality of mind will increase, and that will be helpful to Self-inquiry.

God and the Guru will only show the way to liberation; they will not by themselves take the soul to the state of liberation.

The mind of the ignorant, on the contrary, revolves in the world, feeling miserable, and for a little time returns to Brahman to experience happiness.