I AM - Only Reality

Sri Ramana Maharshi

• Know Thyself is what is usually said. Even that is not correct. For, if we talk of knowing the Self, there must be two selves, one a knowing Self, another the Self which is known, and the process of knowing. The state we call realization is simply being oneself, not knowing anything or becoming anything. If one has realized, he is that which alone is and which alone has been.
• 'I exist' is the only permanent self-evident experience of every one. Nothing else is so self-evident (pratyaksha) as I AM. What people call 'self-evident' viz., the experience they get through the senses, is far from self-evident. The Self alone is that. Pratyaksha is another name for the Self. So, to do Self-analysis and be I AM is the only thing to do. I AM is reality. I am this or that is unreal.
• The Upanishadic saying I AM BRAHMAN simply means, Brahman exists as 'I' and not 'I am Brahman'. It is not to be supposed that a man is advised to contemplate 'I am Brahman'. Does a man keep thinking 'I am a man, I am a man'? He is that, and except when a doubt arises as to whether he is an animal or a tree, there is no need for his to assert 'I am a man'. Similarly the Self is Self. Brahman exists as I AM. In everything and every being.

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From Thus Spake Sri Ramana