Enquiry Made by Ego

Sri Ramana Maharshi

Reality being yourself, there is nothing for you to realize. All regard the unreal as real. What is required is that you give up regarding the unreal as real. The object of all meditation (dhyana) or japa is only that, to give up all thoughts regarding the non-self, to give up many thoughts and to hold on to one thought. The object of all sadhana is to make the mind one-pointed, to concentrate it on one thought and thus exclude our many thoughts. If we do this, eventually even the one thought will go and the mind will get extinguished in its source.

When we enquire within 'Who am I?' the "I" investigated is the ego. It is that which makes vichara (enquiry) also. The Self has no vichara. That which makes the enquiry is the ego. The "I" about which the enquiry is made is also the ego. As the result of the enquiry the ego ceases to exist and only the Self is found to exist.