Atma Vidya Is The Easiest

Sri Ramana Maharshi

One night a devotee asked B, "You have stated that Atma Vidya (Knowledge of the Self) is very easy. How is this Atma Vidya easy?"

B replied, "As an example of direct perception everyone will quote the simile of the nellikai placed in the palm of the hand. The Self is even more directly perceivable than the fruit on the palm. To perceive the fruit there must be the fruit, the palm to place it one and the eyes to see it. The mind should also be in proper condition (to process the information). Without any of these four things, even those with very little knowledge can say out of direct experience, I AM. Because the Self exists just as the feeling I AM, Atma Vidya is very easy indeed. The easiest path is to see the one who is going to attain the Atma.

Another devotee asked a similar question and B gave a similar reply.

Q: Why cannot the Self be perceived directly?

B: Only the Self is said to be directly perceived (pratyaksha). Nothing else is said to be pratyaksha. Although we are having this pratyaksha, the thought I am this body is veiling it. If we give up this thought, the Atma, which is always within the direct experience of everyone, will shine forth.

Q: Sri Bhagavan has stated this so simply. But the thought I am the body does not leave us.

B: It is not leaving you because it is very strong.

Q: Why and how did that thought come into being?

B: It came into being only through a lack of enquiry on your part. A verse in Kaivalya Navaneetam gives the same explanation:

"Because its nature is not determinable, maya is said to be inexpressible. They are in its grip who think:  This is mine - I am the body - the world is real. O son, none can ascertain how this mysterious illusion came into being. As to why it arose it is is because of the person's lack of discerning enquiry."

If we see the Self the objects which are seen will not appear as separate from us. Having see all the letters on a paper, we fail to see that paper which is the base. Likewise, suffering only arises because we see what is superimposed on the base without seeing the base itself. What is superimposed should not be seen without also seeing the substratum.

How were we in sleep? When we were asleep the various thoughts such as 'this body, this world' were not there. It should be difficult to identify with these states (waking and dreaming) that appear and disappear, (but everyone does it).

Everyone has the experience 'I always am'. In order to say 'I slept well, I awoke, I dreamt, when unconscious I knew nothing', it is necessary that one exists, and known that one exists, in all these three states. If one seeks the Self, saying, 'I don't see myself', where can one find it? To know that everything we see is the Self, it is enough that the I am the body thought ceases to exist.

From Annamalai Swami's 'Diary Extracts'