Knowing the Self...

Q. How to know the Self?



A. See what the Self is. What you consider as the Self is really either the mind, intellect, or the 'I' thought. So hold on to it. The others will vanish, leaving the Self.



Are there two "I"'s? How do you know your existence? Do you see yourself with these eyes? Question yourself. How does this question arise? Do I remain to ask it or not? Can I find myself as in a mirror? Because your outlook has been outward bent, it has lost sight of the Self and your vision is external. The Self is not found in the external objects. Turn your look within and plunge down. You will be the Self.



Q. What is to be done to kill the ego?



A. See for whom the doubts are. Who is the doubter? Who is the thinker? That is the ego, hold it. The other thoughts will die away. The ego is pure. See wherefrom the ego arises. That is pure consciousness.



Q. I begin to ask myself "Who am I," eliminate the body as not 'I', the prana as not 'I', the mind as not 'I' and I am not able to proceed further.



A. Well, that is so far as the intellect goes. Your process is only intellectual. Indeed all the scriptures mention the process only to guide the seeker to know the Truth. The truth cannot be directly pointed out. Hence this intellectual process. You see, the one who eliminates all the "not-I" cannot eliminate the 'I'. To say "I am not this," or "I am that" there must be the 'I'. This 'I' is only the ego or the 'I-thought'. After the rising up of this 'I-thought' all other thoughts arise. The 'I-thought' is therefore the root-thought. If the root is eliminated all others are uprooted. Therefore seek the root 'I', question yourself "who am I"?; find out its source. Then all these will vanish and the pure Self will remain over. The 'I' is always there—in Sushupti, in dream and in wakefulness. The one in sleep is the same as the one who now speaks. There is always the feeling of 'I'; otherwise, do you deny your existence? You do not say "I am"; find out who is.



The reality of yourself cannot be questioned. The Self is the primal reality. The ordinary man takes as reality unconsciously his true inner reality plus all things which have come into his consciousness as pertaining to himself, body, etc. He has to unlearn.




Conscious Immortality
Conversations with Ramana Maharshi
by Paul Brunton