Remain as the Self

Sri Ramana Maharshi

In 1939 two Congress workers came into the hall and began to question Bhagavan.

Q: Can we attain jnana through your grace and teach it to the people of the world?

M: First know yourself; leave alone the idea of teaching others. If the world and its people remain after your realization, you may teach them. Trying to help the world without knowing yourself will be just like a blind man trying to treat the diseases in the eyes of others. First clear your own eyes. If you do this you will see the eyes of all others as your own. Then, if you see the eyes of all others as your own, how can you exist without helping them?

Q: After reading the mahavakya 'aham brahmasmi' from the vedanta sastras any number of times, why is one unable to attain jnana?

M: Knowledge of the Self is not in the vedanta sastras. Knowledge of the Self can only be obtained by studying oneself.

Q: How to study oneself?

M: You can study it only if there are two selves (one which studies and the other which is studied). To remain as the Self is to study the Self. If you study the vedas and the sastras you may get due respect in the world. Society will then decorate your neck with garlands, read you complimentary letters, give you good food, a great name and much money. But all these things will be great obstacles for jnana and sadhana.

Q: However hard we try, the suffering due to samsara does not go away.

M: If we see who is having the samsara the suffering will go.

Q: It is said that one can attain the Self by means of Patanjali yoga. Is this true?

M: Yoga means the union of two existing things. Would you agree that there are two I's?

Q: No.

M: Where is one to attain knowledge of the Self? Since we ourselves are already the Self, suffering arises only when we think, 'I am the body' or 'There is a Self which I have to attain'. The Self is not something that is a long way away. We need not search for it by travelling on planes or trains. To do this will be like a man who is immersed in water crying out, 'I am thirsty! I am thirsty!' If we want to attain the Self while already being the Self how is it possible?

-Taken from 'Diary Extracts' of Sri Annamalai Swami