Ramana Maharshi Quotes

Take no notice of the ego and its activities, but see only the light behind. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Think of God; attachments will gradually drop away. If you wait till all desires disappear before starting your devotion and prayer, you will have to wait for a very long time indeed. ~ Ramana Maharshi

If one's mind has peace, the whole world will appear peaceful. ~ Ramana Maharshi

How does one get rid of fear? Ramana: What is fear? It is only a thought. If there is anything besides the Self there is reason to fear. Who sees things separate from the Self? First the ego arises and sees objects as external. If the ego does not rise, the Self alone exists and there is nothing external. For anything external to oneself implies the existence of the seer within. Seeking it there will eliminate doubt and fear. Not only fear, all other thoughts centred round the ego will disappear along with it. ~ Ramana Maharshi

The ultimate Truth is so simple. It is nothing more than being in the pristine state. This is all that need be said. till, it is a wonder that to teach this simple Truth there should come into being so many religions, creeds, methods and disputes among them and so on! Oh the pity! Oh the pity! ~ Ramana Maharshi

In accordance with the prarabdha of each, the One whose function it is to ordain makes each to act. What will not happen will never happen, whatever effort one may put forth. And what will happen will not fail to happen, however much one may seek to prevent it. This is certain. The part of wisdom therefore is to stay quiet. ~ Ramana Maharshi

See who is the doubter, who is the thinker. It is the ego. Hold it; the other thoughts will die away - the ego will be left pure. See the source from where the ego arises and abide in it. That is pure consciousness. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Every person I've known has had an effect on me, as have people whom I've not met in the physical in this life, but whom I've met inwardly, teachers from other eras - Sri Ramana Maharshi, Sri Ramakrishna and Lao Tse. ~ Frederick Lenz

People such as inventors searching for new material, make their discoveries in a state of self-forgetfulness. It is in a condition of deep intellectual concentration that this forgetfulness of the ego arises and the invention is revealed. This is also a way of developing intuition. ~ Ramana Maharshi

One should remain as a witness to whatever happens, adopting the attitude, 'Let whatever strange things that happens happen, let us see!' This should be one's practice. Nothing happens by accident in the divine scheme of things. ~ Ramana Maharshi

You are the witness of the three bodies: the gross, the subtle, and the causal, and of the three times: past, present and future, and also this void. In the story of the tenth man, when each of them counted and thought they were only nine, each one forgetting to count himself, there is a stage when they think one is missing and do not know who it is; and that corresponds to the void. We are so accustomed to the notion that all that we see around us is permanent and that we are this body, that when all this ceases to exist we imagine and fear that we also have ceased to exist. ~ Ramana Maharshi

If you go the way of your thoughts you will be carried away by them and you will find yourself in an endless maze. ~ Ramana Maharshi

The experience of not forgetting consciousness alone is the state of devotion which is the relationship of unfading real love, because the real knowledge of Self, which shines as the undivided supreme bliss itself, surges up as the nature of love. Love itself is the actual form of God. That is pure bliss. Call it pure bliss, God, Self, or what you will. That is devotion, that is realization and that is everything. ~ Ramana Maharshi

What is illusion?
M.: To whom is the illusion? Find it out. Then illusion will vanish.
Generally people want to know about illusion and do not examine
to whom it is. It is foolish. Illusion is outside and unknown. But
the seeker is considered to be known and is inside. Find out what
is immediate, intimate, instead of trying to find out what is distant
and unknown. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Experiences such as, 'I went; I came; I was; I did,' come naturally to everyone. From these experiences, does it not appear that the consciousness 'I' is the subject of those various acts? Enquiry into the true nature of that consciousness, and remaining as oneself, is the way to understand, through enquiry, one's true nature. ~ Ramana Maharshi

The man who prays, the prayer, and the God to whom he prays all have reality only as manifestations of the Self. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Reality is simply the loss of ego. Destroy the ego by seeking its identity. Because the ego is no entity it will automatically vanish and reality will shine forth by itself. ~ Ramana Maharshi

To perform one's duty is the greatest service to God. ~ Ramana Maharshi

It will come all right in the end. There is the steady impulse of your determination that sets you on your feet again after every downfall and breakdown. Gradually the obstacles are all overcome and your current becomes stronger. Everything comes right in the end. Steady determination is what is required. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Silence is also conversation. ~ Ramana Maharshi

No one succeeds without effort ... Those who succeed owe their success to perseverance. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Realization is our true nature. It is nothing new to be gained. What is new cannot be eternal. Therefore there is no need to be doubting whether we would gain or lose the self. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Food affects the mind. For the practice of any kind of yoga, vegetarianism is absolutely necessary since it makes the mind more pure and harmonious. ~ Ramana Maharshi

You are all searching for the silence of the mountain. But you're looking for something outside. This silence is accessible to you right now, inside the center of your own being. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Peace is the inner nature of humankind. If you find it within yourself, you will then find it everywhere. ~ Ramana Maharshi

One who knows the secret of that LOVE finds the world full of Universal Love ~ Ramana Maharshi

Silence is never-ending speech. Vocal speech obstructs the other speech of silence. In silence one is in intimate contact with the surroundings. Language is only a medium for communicating one's thoughts to another. Silence is ever speaking. ~ Ramana Maharshi

If the light of the sun is invisible to the owl it is only the fault of that bird and not of the sun. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Of all yogins, only he who rests his unwavering mind and love in me is dear to me. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Surrender is to give oneself up to the original cause of one's being. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Every moment there is creation, every moment destruction. There is no absolute creation, no absolute destruction. Both are movement, and that is eternal. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Bliss is not something to be got. On the other hand you are always Bliss. This desire [for Bliss] is born of the sense of incompleteness. To whom is this sense of incompleteness? Enquire. In deep sleep you were blissful. Now you are not so. What has interposed between that Bliss and this non-bliss? It is the ego. Seek its source and find you are Bliss. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Your concentration must come as easily as the breath. Fix yourself on one thing and try to hold onto it. All will come right. Meditation is sticking to one thought. That single thought keeps away other thoughts. The dissipated mind is a sign of its weakness. By constant meditation it gains strength. ~ Ramana Maharshi

The explorers seek happiness in finding curiosities, discovering new lands and undergoing risks in adventures. They are thrilling. But where is pleasure found? Only within. Pleasure is not to be sought in the external world. ~ Ramana Maharshi

It is said that the heart is in the microcosm just as the orb of the sun in the macrocosm. The mind in Sahasrara is like the disc of the moon. ~ Ramana Maharshi

For those who have obtained unobstructed knowledge of Self, the world is seen merely as a bondage causing imagination. ~ Ramana Maharshi

You know that you know nothing. Find out that knowledge. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Who am I? Not the body, because it is decaying; not the mind, because the brain will decay with the body; not the personality, nor the emotions, for these also will vanish with death. ~ Ramana Maharshi

The body dies, but the spirit that transcends it cannot be touched by death. ~ Ramana Maharshi

The state of self-realization, as we call it, is not attaining something new or reaching some goal which is far away, but simply being that which you always are and which you always have been. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Your duty is to be and not to be this or that. 'I am that I am' sums up the whole truth. The method is summed up in the words 'Be still'. What does stillness mean? It means destroy yourself. Because any form or shape is the cause for trouble. Give up the notion that 'I am so and so'. All that is required to realize the Self is to be still. What can be easier than that? ~ Ramana Maharshi

A realized one sends out waves of spiritual influence in his aura, which draw many people towards him. Yet he may sit in a cave and maintain complete silence. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Doubts arise because of an absence of surrender. ~ Ramana Maharshi

If you are vigilant and make a stern effort to reject every thought when it rises, you will soon find that you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner self, where there is no need for your effort to reject the thoughts. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Does a man who is acting on the stage in a female part forget that he is a man? Similarly, we too must play our parts on the stage of life, but we must not identify ourselves with those parts. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Pure Consciousness, which is the Heart, includes all, and nothing is outside or apart from it. That is the ultimate Truth. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Apart from thought, there is no independent entity called "world." Just as the spider emits the thread (of the web) out of itself and then withdraws it, likewise, the mind projects the world out of itself and then withdraws it back into itself. ~ Ramana Maharshi

The enemy hates the ego, which the seeker wants to kill; thus, like the anvil to the goldsmith, he is actually a friend. ~ Ramana Maharshi

The State of liberated Being can be reached only by "dying"; but (this) dying does not consist in destruction of the body; one should understand that true death is the extinction of the ideas "I" and "mine." ~ Ramana Maharshi

Action and knowledge are not obstacles to each other. ~ Ramana Maharshi

He who has realized the Self in the Heart has transcended the dualities and is never perplexed. ~ Ramana Maharshi

The Self does not move. The world moves in it. ~ Ramana Maharshi

How is breath control the means for mind control? M: There is no doubt that breath control is the means for mind control, because the mind, like breath, is a part of air, because the nature of mobility is common to both, because the place of origin is the same for both, and because when one of them is controlled the other gets controlled. ~ Ramana Maharshi

The more you prune a plant, the more it grows. So too the more you seek to annihilate the ego, the more it will increase. You should seek the root of the ego and destroy it. ~ Ramana Maharshi

As the activities of the wise man exist only in the eyes of others and not in his own, although he may be accomplishing immense tasks, he really does nothing. ~ Ramana Maharshi

The enquiry 'Who am I?' is the principal means to the removal of all misery and the attainment of the supreme bliss. ~ Ramana Maharshi

God's grace consists in the fact that He shines in the heart of every one as the Self; that power of grace does not exclude any one, whether good or otherwise. ~ Ramana Maharshi

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. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Concentration is not thinking of one thing. On the contrary, it is excluding all thoughts, since all thoughts obstruct the sense of one's true being. All efforts are to be directed simply to removing the veil of ignorance. Concentrating the mind solely on the Self will lead to happiness or bliss. Drawing in the thoughts, restraining them and preventing them from straying outwards is called detachment (vairagya). Fixing them in the Self is spiritual practice (sadhana). Concentrating on the heart is the same as concentrating on the Self. Heart is another name for Self. ~ Ramana Maharshi

First set yourself right, and only then set out to improve others. Change the hearts of men and the world will surely change. But one must begin somewhere; and one can only begin with oneself. ~ Ramana Maharshi

That which is not present in deep dreamless sleep is not real ~ Ramana Maharshi

The Self alone exists. When you try to trace the ego, which is the basis of the perception of the world and everything else, you find the ego does not exist at all and neither does all this creation that you see. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Grace is ever present. All that is necessary is that you surrender to it. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Happiness is not to be sought in solitude or in busy centers. It is in the Self. ~ Ramana Maharshi

All that is required to realise the Self is to Be Still. ~ Ramana Maharshi

The Lord of the Universe carries the entire burden of this world. You imagine you do. You can hand all your burdens over to His care. Whatever you have to do, you will be made an instrument for doing it at the right time. Do not think you cannot do it unless you have the desire to do it. Desire does not give you the strength for doing. The entire strength is the Lord's. ~ Ramana Maharshi

I see only what you see, but I notice what I see. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Silence is truth. Silence is bliss. Silence is peace. And hence Silence is the Self. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Every living being longs always to be happy, untainted by sorrow; and everyone has the greatest love for himself, which is solely due to the fact that happiness is his real nature. Hence, in order to realize that inherent and untainted happiness, which indeed he daily experiences when the mind is subdued in deep sleep, it is essential that he should know himself. For obtaining such knowledge the inquiry 'Who am I?' in quest of the Self is the best means. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Concentration of the mind is in a way common to both Knowledge and Yoga. Yoga aims at union of the individual with the universal, the Reality. This Reality cannot be new. It must exist even now, and it does exist. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Be equally indifferent to both and abide in the faith of God. That will be so only when one's faith is strong that God looks after all of us. ~ Ramana Maharshi

The solution to your problem is to see who has it. ~ Ramana Maharshi

The purpose of all these illustrations is to direct the seeker's mind towards the one Reality underlying them all. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Remain still, with the conviction that the Self shines as everything yet nothing, within, without, and everywhere. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Thoughts come and go. Feelings come and go. Find out what it is that remains. ~ Ramana Maharshi

The mind of one meditating on a single object becomes one-pointed. And one-pointedness of mind leads to abidance in the self. Real attainment is to be fully conscious, to be aware of surroundings and the people around, to move among them all, but not to merge consciousness in the environment. One should remain in inner independent awareness. ~ Ramana Maharshi

I have never said that there is no need for a guru. All depends on what you call guru. He need not be in a human form. ~ Ramana Maharshi

There is nothing wrong with God's creation. Mystery and Suffering only exist in the mind. ~ Ramana Maharshi

In the Heart's cavity, the sole Brahman as an ever-persisting 'I' shines direct in the form of the Self. Into the Heart enter thyself, with mind in search or in deeper plunge. Or by
restraint of life-movement be firmly poised in the Self. ~ Ramana Maharshi

When there are thoughts, it is distraction: when there are no thoughts, it is meditation. ~ Ramana Maharshi

The source of the ego is God. ~ Ramana Maharshi

The only useful purpose of the present birth is to turn within and realize the Self. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Ramana Maharshi and Rumi would agree: the joy of being human is in uncovering the core we already are, the treasure buried in the ruin. ~ Coleman Barks

He who thinks he is the doer is also the sufferer. ~ Ramana Maharshi

The question 'Who am I?' is not really meant to get an answer, the question 'Who am I?' is meant to dissolve the questioner. ~ Ramana Maharshi

God illumines the mind and shines within it. One cannot know God by means of the mind. One can but turn the mind inwards and merge it in God. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Grace is not something outside or you.. In fact, your very desire for grace is due to grace that is already working in you. ~ Ramana Maharshi

It is beyond words or thoughts. ~ Ramana Maharshi

When we turn the mind inwards, God manifests as the inner consciousness. ~ Ramana Maharshi

If you approach the ocean with a cup, you can only take away a cupful; if you approach it with a bucket you can take away a bucketful. ~ Ramana Maharshi

The body is the temple; the jiva is God (Siva). If one worships him with the 'I am He' thought, one will gain release. ~ Ramana Maharshi

If one watches whence the notion 'I' arises, the mind gets absorbed there; that is tapas. When a mantra is repeated, if one watches whence that mantra sound arises, the mind gets absorbed
there; that is tapas. ~ Ramana Maharshi

The sense of "I" pertains to the person, the body and the brain. When anyone knows true Being for the first time, something else arises from the depths and takes possession... That something is behind the mind; it is infinite, divine, eternal. Some people call it the Kingdom of Heaven, others call it the soul, and others again Nirvana, and Hindus call it liberation; you may give it what name you wish. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Let knowledge be guessed by the sign of equality to all beings. ~ Ramana Maharshi

All that one gives to others one gives to one's self. If this truth is understood, who will not give to others? ~ Ramana Maharshi

To ask the mind to kill itself is like making the thief the policeman. He will go with you and pretend to catch the thief, but nothing will be gained. So you must turn inward and see where the mind rises from, and then it will cease to exist. ~ Ramana Maharshi

All activities and events that a body is to go through are determined at the time of conception. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Realization consists of getting rid of the false idea that one is not realized. ~ Ramana Maharshi

Speaking of Self-realizatio n is a delusion. It is only because people have been under the delusion that the non-Self is the Self and the unreal the Real that they have to be weaned out of it by the other delusion called Self-realizatio n; because actually the Self always is the Self and there is no such thing as realizing it. ~ Ramana Maharshi

The Self is here and now, it is the only Reality. There is nothing else. ~ Ramana Maharshi