You Are Not The Doer

Sri Ramana Maharshi

• The difficulty is that man thinks that he is the doer. But it is a mistake. It is the Higher Power that does everything and he is the tool. If he accepts that position, he is free from troubles. Otherwise he courts them. Take for instance the figure at the base of the gopuram, the temple tower, which is made to appear as bearing the burden of the tower on its shoulders. Its look and attitude picture great strain while bearing the very heavy burden. But think, the tower is built on earth and it rests on its foundations. The figure is part of the tower. Is it not funny? So is the man who takes on himself the sense of doing.
• If the inquiry is made whether mind exists, it will be found that mind does not exist. That is control of mind. Otherwise if the mind is taken to exist and one seeks to control it, it amounts to the mind controlling the mind just like a thief turning out as a policeman to catch the thief, that is himself.
• This insentient body does not say "I": no one ever says, "I did not exist in sleep": but all this comes into being (only) after the rising of the ego; seek therefore the Source where from the ego rises, by concentrating the mind on the quest.

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From "Thus Spake Ramana"