Who Am I
Date: 2010-03-15 11:05:29+00:00
Publisher: V.S. Ramanan President Sri Ramanasramam Tiruvannamalai 606 603 Tamil Nadu, INDIA

WHO AM I?

THE TEACHINGS of

BHAGAVAN
SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI

SRI RAMANASRAMAM

Tiruvannamalai

2010

© Sri Ramanasramam

Tiruvannamalai

Seventh Edition - 1948

Eighth Edition - 2010 – 10000 copies

CC No.: 1143

ISBN: 978-81-8288-113-6

Price: Rs.

Published by

V.S. Ramanan

President

Sri Ramanasramam

Tiruvannamalai 606 603

Tamil Nadu, INDIA

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Introduction

Who am I? is the title given to a
set of questions and answers bearing on

Self-enquiry. The questions were put
to Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi by

Sri M. Sivaprakasam Pillai, about the year

1902. Sri Pillai, a graduate in philosophy,
was at the time employed in the Revenue

Department of the South Arcot Collectorate.

During his visit to Tiruvannamalai in 1902
on official work, he went to Virupaksha Cave
on Arunachala Hill and met the Maharshi
there. He sought from him spiritual guidance
and solicited answers to questions relating to

Self-enquiry. As Bhagavan was not talking
then, not because of any vow he had taken
but because he did not have the inclination
to talk, he answered questions put to him
by writing. As recollected and recorded by

Sri Sivaprakasam Pillai, there were thirteen
questions and answers to them given by

Bhagavan. This record was first published
by Sri Pillai in 1923 (in the original Tamil),
along with a couple of poems composed
by himself relating how Bhagavan’s grace
operated in his case by dispelling his doubts
and by saving him from a crisis in life.

Who am I? has been published several
times subsequently. We find thirteen
questions and answers in some editions
and twenty-eight in others. There is also
another published version in which the
questions are not given, and the teachings
are rearranged in the form of an essay. The
extant English translation is of this essay.

The present rendering is of the text in the
form of twenty-eight questions and answers.

Along with Vicharasangraham (Self-

Enquiry), Nan Yar (Who am I?) constitutes
the first set of instructions in the Master’s
own words. These two are the only prose
pieces among Bhagavan’s works. They
clearly set forth the central teaching that
the direct path to liberation is Self-enquiry.

The particular mode in which the enquiry
is to be made is lucidly set forth in Nan

Yar. The mind consists of thoughts. The

“I”-thought is the first to arise in the
mind. When the enquiry “Who am I?” is
persistently pursued, all other thoughts get
destroyed, and finally the “I”-thought itself
vanishes leaving the supreme non-dual Self
alone. The false identification of the Self
with the phenomena of non-self such as
the body and mind, thus ends, and there
is illumination, sakshatkara. The process of
enquiry, of course, is not an easy one. As one
enquires “Who am I?”, other thoughts will
arise; but as these arise, one should not yield
to them by following them; on the contrary,
one should ask, “To whom do they arise?”

In order to do this, one has to be extremely
vigilant. Through constant enquiry one
should make the mind stay in its source,
without allowing it to wander away and get
lost in the mazes of thought created by itself.

All other disciplines such as breath-control
and meditation on the forms of God should
be regarded as auxiliary practices. They
are useful so far as they help the mind to
become quiescent and one-pointed. For the
mind that has gained skill in concentration

Self-enquiry becomes comparatively easy.

It is by ceaseless enquiry that the thoughts
are destroyed and the Self realised – the
plenary Reality in which there is not even the

“I”-thought, the experience which is referred
to as “Silence”.

This, in substance, is Bhagavan

Sri Ramana Maharshi’s teachings in Nan Yar

(Who am I?).

T.M.P. Mahadevan

University of Madras

June 30, 1982

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi

(At the age of 21)

Who Am I?

Nan Yar

All living beings desire to be happy always,
without any misery. In everyone there is observed
supreme love for oneself. And happiness alone is
the cause of love. In order therefore, to gain that
happiness which is one’s nature and which is
experienced in the state of deep sleep, where there
is no mind, one should know oneself. To achieve
this, the Path of Knowledge, the enquiry in the
form of “Who am I?”, is the principal means.

1. Who am I?

The gross body which is composed of
the seven humours ( dhatus), I am not; the
five cognitive sense organs, viz., the senses
of hearing, touch, sight, taste and smell,
which apprehend their respective objects,
viz. sound, touch, colour, taste and odour,

I am not; the five cognative sense organs,
viz., the organs of speech, locomotion,
grasping, excretion and procreation, which
have as their respective functions, speaking,
moving, grasping, excreting and enjoying, I
am not; the five vital airs, prana, etc., which
perform respectively the five functions of
in-breathing, etc., I am not; even the mind
which thinks, I am not; the nescience too,
which is endowed only with the residual
impressions of objects and in which there
are no objects and no functionings, I am not.

2. If I am none of these, then who am I?

After negating all of the above
mentioned as ‘not this’, ‘not this’, that

Awareness which alone remains – that I am.

3. What is the nature of Awareness?

The nature of Awareness is Existence-

Consciousness-Bliss.

4. When will the realization of the Self be
gained?

When the world which is what-is-seen
has been removed, there will be realization
of the Self which is the seer.

5. Will there not be realization of the Self
even while the world is there (taken as
real)?

There will not be.

6. Why?

The seer and the object seen are like the
rope and the snake. Just as the knowledge
of the rope which is the substratum will
not arise unless the false knowledge of the
illusory serpent goes, so the realization of
the Self which is the substratum will not
be gained unless the belief that the world is
real is removed.

7. When will the world which is the object
seen be removed?

When the mind, which is the cause
of all cognition and of all actions, becomes
quiescent, the world will disappear.

8. What is the nature of the mind?

What is called ‘mind’ is a wondrous
power residing in the Self. It causes all
thoughts to arise. Apart from thoughts, there
is no such thing as mind. Therefore, thought
is the nature of mind. Apart from thoughts,
there is no independent entity called the
world. In deep sleep there are no thoughts,
and there is no world. In the states of waking
and dream, there are thoughts, and there is a
world also. Just as the spider emits the thread

(of the web) out of itself and again withdraws
it into itself, likewise the mind projects the
world out of itself and again resolves it into
itself. When the mind comes out of the Self,
the world appears. Therefore, when the world
appears (to be real), the Self does not appear;
and when the Self appears (shines) the world
does not appear. When one persistently
inquires into the nature of the mind, the
mind will end leaving the Self (as the residue).

What is referred to as the Self is the Atman.

The mind always exists only in dependence
on something gross; it cannot stay alone. It
is the mind that is called the subtle body or
the soul ( jiva).

9. What is the path of inquiry for
understanding the nature of the mind?

That which rises as ‘I’ in this body is
the mind. If one inquires as to where in the
body the thought ‘I’ rises first, one would
discover that it rises in the heart. That is the
place of the mind’s origin. Even if one thinks
constantly ‘I-I’, one will be led to that place.

Of all the thoughts that arise in the mind, the

‘I’-thought is the first. It is only after the rise
of this that the other thoughts arise. It is after
the appearance of the first personal pronoun
that the second and third personal pronouns
appear; without the first personal pronoun
there will not be the second and third.

10. How will the mind become quiescent?

By the inquiry ‘Who am I?’. The thought

‘Who am I?’ will destroy all other thoughts,
and like the stick used for stirring the burning
pyre, it will itself in the end get destroyed.

Then, there will arise Self-realization.

11. What is the means for constantly holding
on to the thought ‘Who am I?’

When other thoughts arise, one should
not pursue them, but should inquire: ‘To
whom do they arise?’ It does not matter how
many thoughts arise. As each thought arises,
one should inquire with diligence, ‘To whom
has this thought arisen?’. The answer that
would emerge would be ‘to me’. Thereupon
if one inquires ‘Who am I?’, the mind will
go back to its source; and the thought that
arose will become quiescent. With repeated
practice in this manner, the mind will
develop the skill to stay in its source. When
the mind that is subtle goes out through the
brain and the sense-organs, the gross names
and forms appear; when it stays in the heart,
the names and forms disappear. Not letting
the mind go out, but retaining it in the Heart
is what is called ‘inwardness’ ( antarmukha).

Letting the mind go out of the Heart is
known as ‘externalisation’ ( bahirmukha).

Thus, when the mind stays in the Heart, the

‘I’ which is the source of all thoughts will
go, and the Self which ever exists will shine.

Whatever one does, one should do without
the egoity ‘I’. If one acts in that way, all will
appear as of the nature of Siva (God).

12. Are there no other means for making the
mind quiescent?

Other than inquiry, there are no
adequate means. If through other means it
is sought to control the mind, the mind will
appear to be controlled, but will again go
forth. Through the control of breath also, the
mind will become quiescent; but it will be
quiescent only so long as the breath remains
controlled, and when the breath resumes the
mind also will again start moving and will
wander as impelled by residual impressions.

The source is the same for both mind and
breath. Thought, indeed, is the nature of the
mind. The thought ‘I’ is the first thought
of the mind; and that is egoity. It is from
that whence egoity originates that breath
also originates. Therefore, when the mind
becomes quiescent, the breath is controlled,
and when the breath is controlled the mind
becomes quiescent. But in deep sleep,
although the mind becomes quiescent,
the breath does not stop. This is because
of the will of God, so that the body may
be preserved and other people may not
be under the impression that it is dead. In
the state of waking and in samadhi, when
the mind becomes quiescent the breath
is controlled. Breath is the gross form of
mind. Till the time of death, the mind keeps
breath in the body; and when the body dies,
the mind takes the breath along with it.

Therefore, the exercise of breath control is
only an aid for rendering the mind quiescent

( manonigraha); it will not destroy the mind

( manonasa).

Like the practice of breath control,
meditation on the forms of God, repetition
of mantras, restriction on food, etc., are but
aids for rendering the mind quiescent.

Through meditation on the forms of

God and through repetition of mantras,
the mind becomes one-pointed. The mind
will always be wandering. Just as when a
chain is given to an elephant to hold in its
trunk it will go along grasping the chain
and nothing else, so also when the mind is
occupied with a name or form it will grasp
that alone. When the mind expands in the
form of countless thoughts, each thought
becomes weak; but as thoughts get resolved
the mind becomes one-pointed and strong;
for such a mind Self-inquiry will become
easy. Of all the restrictive rules, that relating
to the taking of sattvic food in moderate
quantities is the best; by observing this rule,
the sattvic quality of mind will increase, and
that will be helpful to Self-inquiry.

13. The residual impressions (thoughts) of
objects appear unending like the waves of an
ocean. When wil al of them get destroyed?

As the meditation on the Self rises
higher and higher, the thoughts will get
destroyed.

14. Is it possible for the residual impressions of objects that come from beginningless
time, as it were, to be resolved, and for
one to remain as the pure Self ?

Without yielding to the doubt ‘Is it
possible, or not?’, one should persistently
hold on to the meditation on the Self.

Even if one be a great sinner, one should
not worry and weep ‘O! I am a sinner, how
can I be saved?’ One should completely
renounce the thought ‘I am a sinner’ and
concentrate keenly on meditation on the

Self; then, one would surely succeed. There
are not two minds – one good and the
other evil; the mind is only one. It is the
residual impressions that are of two kinds

– auspicious and inauspicious. When the
mind is under the influence of auspicious
impressions it is called good; and when
it is under the influence of inauspicious
impressions it is regarded as evil.

The mind should not be allowed to
wander towards worldly objects and what
concerns other people. However bad other
people may be, one should bear no hatred
for them. Both desire and hatred should be
eschewed. All that one gives to others one
gives to one’s self. If this truth is understood
who will not give to others? When one’s
self arises all arises; when one’s self becomes
quiescent all becomes quiescent. To the
extent we behave with humility, to that
extent there will result good. If the mind is
rendered quiescent, one may live anywhere.

15. How long should inquiry be practised?

As long as there are impressions of
objects in the mind, so long the inquiry

‘Who am I?’ is required. As thoughts arise
they should be destroyed then and there
in the very place of their origin, through
inquiry. If one resorts to contemplation of
the Self unintermittently, until the Self is
gained, that alone would do. As long as there
are enemies within the fortress, they will
continue to sally forth; if they are destroyed
as they emerge, the fortress will fall into our
hands.

16. What is the nature of the Self?

What exists in truth is the Self alone.

The world, the individual soul and God are
appearances in it, like silver in mother-of-
pearl; these three appear at the same time
and disappear at the same time.

The Self is that where there is absolutely
no ‘I’-thought. That is called ‘Silence’. The

Self itself is the world; the Self itself is ‘I’; the

Self itself is God; all is Siva, the Self.

17. Is not everything the work of God?

Without desire, resolve, or effort, the
sun rises; and in its mere presence, the sun-
stone emits fire, the lotus blooms, water
evaporates, people perform their various
functions and then rest. Just as in the presence
of the magnet the needle moves, it is by virtue
of the mere presence of God that the souls
governed by the three (cosmic) functions
or the fivefold divine activity perform their
actions and then rest, in accordance with
their respective karmas. God has no resolve;
no karma attaches itself to Him. That is like
worldly actions not affecting the sun, or like
the merits and demerits of the other four
elements not affecting all-pervading space.

18. Of the devotees, who is the greatest?

He who gives himself up to the Self
that is God is the most excellent devotee.

Giving one’s self up to God means remaining
constantly in the Self without giving room
for the rise of any thoughts other than that
of the Self.

Whatever burdens are thrown on God,

He bears them. Since the supreme power
of God makes all things move, why should
we, without submitting ourselves to it,
constantly worry ourselves with thoughts
as to what should be done and how, and
what should not be done and how not? We
know that the train carries all loads, so after
getting on it why should we carry our small
luggage on our head to our discomfort,
instead of putting it down in the train and
feeling at ease?

19. What is non-attachment?

As thoughts arise, destroying them utterly
without any residue in the very place of their
origin is non-attachment. Just as the pearl-diver
ties a stone to his waist, sinks to the bottom of
the sea and there takes the pearls, so each one
of us should be endowed with non-attachment,
dive within oneself and obtain the Self-Pearl.

20. Is it not possible for God and the Guru
to effect the liberation of a soul?

God and the Guru will only show the
way to liberation; they will not by themselves
take the soul to the state of liberation.

In truth, God and the Guru are not
different. Just as the prey which has fallen
into the jaws of a tiger has no escape, so
those who have come within the ambit of
the Guru’s gracious look will be saved by
the Guru and will not get lost; yet, each one
should, by his own effort pursue the path
shown by God or Guru and gain liberation.

One can know oneself only with one’s own
eye of knowledge, and not with somebody
else’s. Does he who is Rama require the help
of a mirror to know that he is Rama?

21. Is it necessary for one who longs for
liberation to inquire into the nature of
categories (tattvas)?

Just as one who wants to throw away
garbage has no need to analyse it and see what
it is, so one who wants to know the Self has
no need to count the number of categories
or inquire into their characteristics; what he
has to do is to reject altogether the categories
that hide the Self. The world should be
considered like a dream.

22. Is there no difference between waking and
dream?

Waking is long and dream short; other
than this there is no difference. Just as
waking happenings seem real while awake,
so do those in a dream while dreaming. In
dream the mind takes on another body. In
both waking and dream states thoughts,
names and forms occur simultaneously.

23. Is it any use reading books for those who
long for liberation?

All the texts say that in order to
gain liberation one should render the
mind quiescent; therefore their conclusive
teaching is that the mind should be rendered
quiescent; once this has been understood
there is no need for endless reading. In order
to quieten the mind one has only to inquire
within oneself what one’s Self is; how could
this search be done in books? One should
know one’s Self with one’s own eye of
wisdom. The Self is within the five sheaths;
but books are outside them. Since the Self
has to be inquired into by discarding the five
sheaths, it is futile to search for it in books.

There will come a time when one will have
to forget all that one has learned.

24. What is happiness?

Happiness is the very nature of the

Self; happiness and the Self are not different.

There is no happiness in any object of the
world. We imagine through our ignorance
that we derive happiness from objects. When
the mind goes out, it experiences misery. In
truth, when its desires are fulfilled, it returns
to its own place and enjoys the happiness that
is the Self. Similarly, in the states of sleep,
samadhi and fainting, and when the object
desired is obtained or the object disliked is
removed, the mind becomes inward-turned,
and enjoys pure Self-Happiness. Thus the
mind moves without rest alternately going
out of the Self and returning to it. Under
the tree the shade is pleasant; out in the
open the heat is scorching. A person who
has been going about in the sun feels cool
when he reaches the shade. Someone who
keeps on going from the shade into the sun
and then back into the shade is a fool. A
wise man stays permanently in the shade.

Similarly, the mind of the one who knows
the truth does not leave Brahman. The mind
of the ignorant, on the contrary, revolves
in the world, feeling miserable, and for a
little time returns to Brahman to experience
happiness. In fact, what is called the world is
only thought. When the world disappears,
i.e., when there is no thought, the mind
experiences happiness; and when the world
appears, it goes through misery.

25. What is wisdom-insight (jnana drishti)?

Remaining quiet is what is called
wisdom-insight. To remain quiet is to resolve
the mind in the Self. Telepathy, knowing
past, present and future happenings and
clairvoyance do not constitute wisdom-
insight.

26. What is the relation between desirelessness
and wisdom?

Desirelessness is wisdom. The two are
not different; they are the same. Desirelessness
is refraining from turning the mind towards
any object. Wisdom means the appearance
of no object. In other words, not seeking
what is other than the Self is detachment or
desirelessness; not leaving the Self is wisdom.

27. What is the difference between inquiry
and meditation?

Inquiry consists in retaining the mind
in the Self. Meditation consists in thinking
that one’s self is Brahman, Existence-

Consciousness-Bliss.

28. What is liberation?

Inquiring into the nature of one’s self
that is in bondage, and realising one’s true
nature is liberation.