The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi Quotes

“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.”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi

“The enquiry ‘Who am I?’ is the principal means to the removal of all misery and the attainment of the supreme bliss.”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“when there is no ‘I’ there is no karma.”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“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.”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“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.”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“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.”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“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.”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“The body is the temple; the jiva is God (Siva). If one worships him with the ‘I am He’ thought, one will gain release.”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“The man who prays, the prayer, and the God to whom he prays all have reality only as manifestations of the Self.”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“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).”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“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.”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“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.”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“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.”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“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.”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“It is beyond words or thoughts.”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“He who has renounced (the ‘I-thought’) thus, remains the same whether he is alone or in the midst of the extensive samsara”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“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.”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“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.”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“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).”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“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?”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“If the light of the sun is invisible to the owl it is only the fault of that bird and not of the sun.”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“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.”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“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.”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“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.”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“What introverted mind calls peace, outside as power is shown; Those who have reached and found this truth, their unity have known.”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“So long as they make efforts they will not be sages (jnanis).”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“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.”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“the delusion of bondage fabricated by ignorance from time immemorial can be removed only by knowledge, and for this purpose the term ‘liberation’ (mukti) has been usually accepted. That is all. The fact that the characteristics of liberation are described in different ways proves that they are imaginary.”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“Action and knowledge are not obstacles to each other.”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi

“so the force of the Self also travels through the psychic nerves and, pervading the entire body, imparts sentience to the senses, and that if this knot is cut, the Self will remain as it always is, without any attributes.”
― Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi