The Lost Necklace

Sri Ramana Maharshi

A woman, with her necklace round her neck, imagines that it has been lost and goes about searching for it, until she is reminded of it by a friend; she has created her own sense of loss, her own anxiety of search and then her own pleasure of recovery. Similarly the Self is all along there, whether you search for it or not. Again just as the woman feels as if the lost necklace has been regained, so also the removal of ignorance and the cessation of false identification reveal the Self which is always present - here and now. This is called realization. It is not new. It amounts to elimination of ignorance and nothing more.
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Atman is an ever-present Reality. Yet, because of ignorance it is not realized. One the destruction of ignorance Atman is realized. It is like missing ornament of one's neck. - Sri Adi Shankaracharya, Atma Bodh